Steel Burns and the Fire Rises
by EpicMan58
Summary: In a world where Naruto Namikaze's faith in Konoha is shattered, how will he shape the world now. Steel meets steel and Naruto rises out of the ashes to punish those who wronged him and his family. Older Naruto.
1. Chapter 1

Prologue

 ** _Amegakure…_**

Akatsuki was a strange bunch in Naruto Namikaze's opinion.

As he sat in the large room, where the other members gathered, the blonde watched the various nuke-nins sizing each other up whilst completely disregarding him.

It didn't matter, Naruto didn't care about this organization to be honest, and he was only there because it was the only place to go.

That had been a two years ago, now as the organization was fully formed, Naruto took stock of just exactly who his partners were supposed to be.

Zetsu, supposedly a former ninja of Kusagakure, had unique plant abilities and _two_ personalities? The man didn't show any skill in taijutsu but Naruto wasn't fooled. This was an organization of S rank ninjas after all. There was no telling what talents he had, all Naruto knew was that the man could hide well, very well. The man wasn't an 'official' member of Akatsuki and was only a spy acting on the word of the leader.

Naruto's eyes slinked to the other side of the room as he held a squirm at the impassive look this woman held.

Akio Yotsuki, the younger sister to the Yondaime Raikage. The woman was well known in Kumo and she possessed Storm Release as well as incredible skill in taijutsu and immense speed. How the woman became a missing nin was unknown but Naruto suspected it was because of the fact she didn't become the Raikage. Akio was skilled, there was no doubt, and she had an S rank ranking in all the bingo books. She also held a lot of political power and had helped Kumo get many allies after the Third Shinobi World War but she wasn't the Raikage.

The woman's red eyes flitted throughout the room before looking away. Naruto's sensory skills picked up a second reserve of chakra there and he held a sigh. According to rumours, Akio was a descendant of Ginkaku and possessed the man's massive chakra reserves as well as his jinchuriki abilities. This was what made other shinobi so wary of her during the Third Shinobi War, there was not telling if she was as aggressive as his ancestor.

Hidan- a shinobi from Yugakure who was seemingly unkillable. Immortal too. The man was a devote follower of the cult of Jashin and had left his village by killing hundreds. He had great skill in taijutsu but seemingly nothing else. No skill in genjutsu. Naruto supposed the man's seemingly invulnerability was helped him win battles. The power to keep going after experiencing life threatening injuries was indeed fearful.

Sasori of the Red Sands. Someone who Naruto was wary of, the man was suspected for killing the Sandaime Kazekage who was an extremely powerful Kage. The man fought using puppets and poisons and was known throughout the Elemental Countries. He was feared and was also known for his skill in genjutsu and fuinjutsu.

Naruto kept that in the back of his mind in case he was ever turned against. Sasori was the type of shinobi who was more subtle in what he did and one small mistake in a battle against the man could result in a painful death.

Deidara of Iwagakure. A powerful shinobi and former leader of Iwa's explosion corps. Despite his demeanour and his praise about 'Art', there was a shrewd mind there. Deidara was skilled, there was no doubt and powerful as well, one had to if they fought the Tsuchikage to a standstill and later defeated squads of ANBU.

Naruto hid a snort. If the Tsuchikage had been ten years younger, then the outcome of the battle would have been much more different. Old age and agility was the only reason the Tsuchikage lost and he seemed to be well aware of it as rumour had it, he was training his granddaughter; who was the same age as Naruto; to become the next Tsuchikage.

Kakuzu of the Jiongu. A very powerful man with skill in all five elements. Kakuzu was feared for the fact he attempted to assassinate the Shodai Hokage and survived. He'd taken the precious kenjutsu of Taki which had made him seemingly immortal. Afterwards Kakuzu had slaughtered Takigakure's main council and become a nuke-nin obsessed with money.

And boy did he have a lot.

Over the years, Kakuzu had accumulated in Naruto's opinion billions of dollars and the man was jealously protective of it, not allowing anyone to even look at it. Naruto didn't care. The man could do whatever he wanted. He just wanted to know how to stop him if possible.

Kisame Hoshigaki. The Monster of the Hidden Mist. The Tailed Beast without a Tail. The Daimyo Killer. There were lots of rumours about him and they did not disappoint. The man had humungous chakra reserves as well as a powerful affinity for water and a secondary affinity for earth. As expected of someone who has risen from the Bloody Mist, Kisame was bloodthirsty and yearned for battle. His powerful sword Samehada helped him with this thirst for battle and the man had a shrewd mind in there. But Naruto also sensed something else behind that façade.

His eyes lingered over to a pale figure who sat in the room calmly flicking his tongue in and out of his mouth. Orochimaru of the Sannin, a shinobi who was feared throughout the Elemental Countries and had survived against a battle with Hanzo the Salamander. Naruto kept an eye on Orochimaru at all times, he didn't trust the man and never would. Orochimaru's experiments were known throughout the world and his methods of achieving immortality were crude and exceptionally brutal. If Naruto got the chance he would kill the man. No buts about it.

He hated the man.

And then there was him.

A 'prodigy'.

One of the best shinobi to come out of Konoha since his father. Genin by 6, Chunin by 8 and ANBU at ten. Naruto's skills had blossomed and he had fully committed himself to Konohagakure only for the village to betray him and show its dark side. The secrets the village had kept from Naruto had angered the blonde and he'd left. No reason to stay in such a corrupt village. Especially with they were planning to do against the Uchiha clan despite the fact there was no evidence they were behind the Kyuubi attack.

He'd left the village two years destroying its government and giving the Sandaime a warning as he did so.

' _Don't fuck with me, old man.' Massive amount of chakra began to circulate around the blonde's hands. 'What else did you do, you bastard!' He rushed forward the chakra forming an all too recognizable ball around his hand._

Last he heard, there were several in contention to be the Godaime Hokage, and all were apparently highly skilled. It didn't really matter to Naruto who was Hokage as long as the village felt his wrath. Naruto's hand briefly turned metallic giving off a sheen in the cramped room raising the interest of a certain man.

A single chain of chakra wafted out from Naruto's back as he caught a kunai thrown at him by Orochimaru. The other members watched this in fascination as the son of Yellow Flash and the Crimson Devil turned to face the smiling face of Orochimaru.

"Ku-ku-ku." Orochimaru's smile threatened to split his face. "To think you had the Steel Release, Naruto-kun? How … fascinating isn't it?"

Naruto simply threw the kunai back at Orochimaru before answering. "What do you want snake?"

"So aggressive," Orochimaru began to walk calmly towards Naruto his eyes glinting with interest. "Although it's to be expected given your summons isn't it?"

Naruto's hand went to his katana as he stood back from the wall. "Problem with my summons eh? That's okay given the Snake clan's many losses to them isn't it?"

"No, no." Orochimaru held up a placating hand as if to stave off any concerns. "Just curious as to how you gained it, that's all."

Naruto looked away briefly before shrugging. "My father's line apparently. His maternal grandmother was from the Land of Water. Mom being a jinchuriki simply awakened it." Hopefully the Sannin would leave him alone and not bother continuing to ask stupid questions.

Well, in his opinion the questions were stupid.

Orochimaru opened his mouth to talk but was cut off by another member of the group.

"Oh, so you're from that clan hmm?" Out of the corner of his eye, Naruto noticed Kisame now eyeing him. "They were pretty powerful, skilled too. Shame I killed them all isn't it, you could have learnt some of their techniques if they were alive."

Naruto narrowed his eyes briefly. Kisame had killed a lot of people with his time under the Yondaime Mizukage Yagura, it was a surprise he remembered killing this clan. "I suppose. Doesn't matter anyhow. My father had a scroll detailing all of their abilities, he never used it because he never unlocked the bloodline."

Kisame grinned, his teeth making him look even more maniacal. "That's great. It would be nice to spar with you, eh, you know being a Namikaze and all."

Naruto shrugged. "If you want to, you can. Be warned, I don't muck around."

The threat was clear but Kisame grinned. "An honour."

The door slammed open jerking Naruto's attention. From it, he could sense two massive chakra reserves, one much smaller than the other but still easily kage level. Naruto began to get curious, who were the leaders of Akatsuki? Despite being a part of the organization, Naruto knew nothing about the leaders, his only interaction being with Zetsu as of yet.

The two figures made their way into the room and Naruto's eyes widened briefly as well as everyone else's in the room.

The first figure with the smaller chakra reserved was a tall graceful woman with blue hair and grey eyes. The woman wore a black and red cloak like everyone else and had a neutral look on her face. The woman impassively looked at Akatsuki before turning away her eyes dismissing them before she looked at the second figure.

The second figure was a man who entered the room on a floating chair made out of metal with what appeared to be cushion which the man was sitting on. At the head of the chair was a large symbol of a salamander surprising Naruto. The man also had red hair similar to Naruto's mother and had a muscular figure. That however wasn't what caught Naruto's eyes. No what caught Naruto was the man's eyes.

The Rinnegan.

Dojutsu of the Sage of Six Paths.

"The hell?" Kisame growled.

"Fuck," Hidan growled.

"How _interesting_ ," Orochimaru said. His interest was piqued, he would love to have the power of the Rinnegan at his disposal. However at the same time, he was incredibly wary of the power that the man had. No the power the man oozed out from every facet, the way he leaned in the chair an example.

Other members in the room expressed their shock at seeing the fabled dojutsu and the man smirked, his purple ringed eyes hiding something in them.

"Well," the man began. "My name is Uzumaki Nagato but you can call me Pein, this woman is my friend Konan."

"Uzumaki?" Naruto asked. Nagato's eyes flickered over to him before turning away.

"Ah, yes, distant relatives Namikaze." For a moment Nagato paused before continuing. "I have called you all here to inform you of Akatsuki's goals."

"Hmm?" Kakuzu here looked up. "A bearer of the Rinnegan needs our help?"

Naruto nodded with Kakuzu. If the man had the Rinnegan what would he need their help for?

"Despite my power, I am not arrogant." Here Nagato shrugged haphazardly and ran a hand through his hair. Naruto recognized that it was an attempt to placate and keep the nuke-nin calm. "That is why I have formed an organization such as Akatsuki."

"To do what exactly?" Sasori's voice floated from his position. "You have called us here, a collection of some of the most powerful shinobi in the land discounting the Kage. Shinobi from all five major villages and you still have not told us your plan."

Nagato gave a look at Sasori before speaking. "I desire … peace."

Now that was unexpected.

The other shinobi in the room merely looked at the man before scoffing. Kisame stretched his head, his 'gills' seemingly opening up and back. "That is the biggest load of bullshit I've heard in my life."

"Peace?" Akio said. "You do realise we are all nuke-nins wanted throughout the world correct?"

"My sensei said, 'one must associate with vipers before they can get down to the prey'." Nagato began to open and close his hand as he leant back. Above his hand a small ball began to form turning into rock before turning back to dust. "Of course, Hanzo was way too … paranoid. It took me a while before I understood what he meant."

"Hanzo was your sensei?" Orochimaru's interest in Nagato waned, attempting to take over Nagato's body now would be less agreeable if he was Hanzo's apprentice.

"Ah, yes." Nagato continued with his thing, whatever it was as he spoke. "But that's a story for another time. What I intend on doing is continuing Hanzo's dream and creating a world of peace."

"How do you intend on doing that?" Naruto spoke. "The villages are already demilitarising apart from Kumo and no-one wants to be at war. It seems as if peace will come regardless."

"If you believe that, you're a fool," Konan spoke, her highly articulate voice resonating throughout the room. "There is no hidden village that would demilitarise. They have too much to lose. Iwa is recovering the last war, Kumo is attempting to gain power, Suna have begun to take steps to ensure their military strength, Kiri is recovering from a civil war and Konoha is recovering from the chaos you put them through. Eventually someone will stake the flames of war and this war ravaged world will be set ablaze."

"Not very cheerful huh?" Kisame said. "So, then all powerful leader, what do you want us to do?"


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 1

 ** _AN._**

 ** _So I'm very happy at the response that I got, a lot of favourites and follows. Thanks guys! If you were wondering, the Akatsuki meeting occurred three years before the start of canon. So two years after Naruto abandoned the village. FYI, Naruto was born 7 years before the Kyuubi attack in my fic, and he's the same age as Itachi._**

 ** _I'm not sure about my other story. I'll probably put it on hiatus, I've lost my muse for it._**

 ** _Anyway leave a review and enjoy if you do._**

 ** _Konohagakure, five years prior to canon._**

 _The forest rustled in the wind as Itachi led his ANBU squad into Konoha. A successful mission, another group of nuke-nin captured including Rokusho Aoi who was supposed to be an A rank ninja with high skill._

A rank ninja, _Itachi thought. The man was too arrogant and fought primarily using his sword. And the man had lost the Raijin years ago so he was nothing compared to Itachi. Itachi's skills were high, incredibly high for being into ANBU at the age of 12. Because of this, many thought that Itachi had a genuine chance at being the first Uchiha Hokage, especially his clan._

 _The clan…_

 _Itachi was brought out of his musings as he walked into the village, he could sense it, an overwhelming feeling overriding his other senses. The feeling ran rampant throughout the city like a plague._

 _Fear._

 _Shinobi rushed around the village their chakra going haywire whilst civilians were bustled into their homes. It seemed as if the village was under attack. But from who? Who would dare attack one of the most powerful places in the world?_

 _"Hey!" Itachi grabbed a chunin and glared at him, his sharingan looking into his eyes. "What's happening?"_

 _The chunin yelped before speaking, his chakra going haywire as he faced the angry Uchiha. "It's Namikaze-sama! He's gone mad!"_

 _"Naruto….?" Itachi dropped the chunin in shock._ How? _What could have happened to have caused Naruto of all people to go crazy?_

 _Seeing that Itachi was otherwise occupied, another member of the squad stepped up, Uchiha Shisui asked a question, "What are you talking about?"_

 _"Namikaze-sama went on a mission south to the Southern half of Land of Fire, he was supposed to stop a rebellion and look for some guy, S rank mission and all…"_

 _"How would you know about an S-rank mission?" Itachi cut in._

 _"Everyone knows! The Daimyo knows, civilians know, it's the talk of the town. How Namikaze-sama killed his squad of ANBU, how people died in the fight by his Koton and his other jutsu, how there were countless dead, he abandoned his teammates and his mission and the Hokage isn't happy."_

 _Itachi's eyes widened._ What had Naruto done? Residual chakra from the fox in his mind?

 _"He's coming back into the village and we're on high alert, the Fire Daimyo has put out an arrest warrant for him …"_

 _Whatever the man had to say was drowned out by what happened next._

 _BOOM!_

 _Itachi eyes picked out where that was. Koharu's house! One of the elders of Konoha, what Naruto was doing now could be treason by attacking a member of the Council, especially one as esteemed as Koharu. He began to rush forward with his squad, his crow mask facing towards the direction when another explosion rocked the city._

 _BOOM!_

 _Smoke began to billow out from the location of Homura's house, another member of the council raising Itachi's fears even more, he motioned towards several ANBU and half of them flickered out, some going to Homura's house whilst others rushing towards Koharu's. He then headed out to another location which he knew the blonde would be at based on these attacks._

 _"Um, Itachi?" Shisui asked as he followed his friend. "Where are we going?"_

 _"Danzo."_

 _Nothing more needed to be said as the two powerful Uchiha rushed through the village._

 _When Itachi reached the hidden ROOT base, this wasn't what he had been expecting._

 _The entire base was collapsed, the ground forming a cavern at one side. Inside the cavern, the dead bodies of ROOT shinobi littered the area some of them dead with strange burns on their body. Both Itachi and Shisui recognized what happened to the ROOT Anbu and they winced. The jutsu used was one of Naruto's unique design and was dangerous, very dangerous._

 _Itachi's eyes took this all in as he jumped underground followed by Itachi and what he could sense was a multitude of Uchiha Police Force officers, among them, he could sense his father. His eyes focused in front of him as he rushed through the base towards the massive amount of chakra he could sense. Dead bodies of ROOT shinobi littered the walkways and Itachi held back a frown. What was Naruto doing?_

 _As he entered a large room, Itachi spotted him, Naruto Namikaze._

 _Naruto stood there calmly pulling his hand out of Danzo. Grimly Itachi noticed that Naruto's katana was sheathed which did nothing to relieve his worries. What raised them was the fact that Naruto was completely silver, seemingly shining in the moonlight. Itachi stepped forward, his hand on his ninjato as he spoke._

 _"Naruto… what …. What are you doing?"_

 _Naruto turned, his eyes boring into Itachi's. "Me? I'm repaying Danzo in hand." There was a sickening crunch as he stepped onto Danzo's skull. "Literally." Dimly Itachi noted that there were two chains of chakra attached to two objects on the ground._

 _"Repaying Danzo? Are you mad? You've killed … maybe slaughtered dozens today and killed ANBU! How is this repaying him?"_

 _"You don't know what I know!" Naruto's katana was pulled out as he pointed it straight at Itachi. Itachi flinched as did Shisui whilst Uchiha clansmen flickered into the room. "You don't have the knowledge I know! This village…. it's betrayed my family!"_

 _"Naruto…."_

 _"Oh shut up!" Naruto's chakra flared as he spoke. "The village was about to betray your family too, only difference is I would have been the weapon."_

 _Itachi's eyes widened. Had relations between the Uchiha clan and the village fallen to that? Would the village have wiped out one of its founding clans? Konoha's pride in the Uchiha clan was almost absolute but with Naruto's words Itachi began to doubt himself. He began to doubt the village and what they were capable of doing._

 _"You know how they are…" Naruto's metallic form receded turning back to his ordinary form as he spoke. "Always saying one things whilst meaning another. Bridging alliances between the Uchiha and the village? They couldn't care less, they just want power, and they've always wanted power, power like back before the First Shinobi World War, where Konoha was on top. Konoha was the world back then. Konoha could do anything they want with the power of Senju Hashirama. And now? My father's dead and their forces are down from the Kyuubi attack, Konoha has_ never _looked weaker."_

 _Itachi said nothing in response to Naruto's words. What could he say? Everything his friend was saying was correct. The elders had always wanted power, no they had always wanted Konoha superiority. They wanted things to be like they were when the villages were introduced, but the world had changed since then. Konoha couldn't be the number one now. The Kyuubi attack and death of Minato had ridden Konoha of many powerful shinobi._

 _"And since I've finished here…" Naruto's katana began to glow as he spoke, the sword turning a reddish colour. Itachi flinched as Naruto began to use that against him "The Hokage is next…"_

 _"Fall back!" Fugaku leapt to the side as red blasts of chakra leapt out from Naruto's hand towards the Uchiha. Some Police Force rushed towards Naruto but the blonde made a hand seal with his free hand as he rose it up in the air._

 **Fūton: Kami Oroshi** (Wind Release: Godly Wind from the Mountain)

 _A massive blast of wind at the approaching Uchiha forced them to separate lest they be thrust backwards by the attack. Naruto used this to his advantage as in a burst of speed he jumped upwards, his chakra chains pulling what looked to be a life-sized object and one small object as well slightly bigger than a cat. Naruto burst through the roof of the room his chakra flaring in anger. Naruto stopped as he sealed the objects away into a scroll before he rushed towards the Hokage tower._

 _Itachi's ninjato was in his hand as he prepared to follow Naruto but he was stopped by his father who had a stunned look on his face._

 _"Tou-san?" What could he want?_

 _"Itachi." Fugaku sighed as he beheld the scene. Moving forward, his eyes picked out a scroll and as he read it, it only confirmed his thoughts. "Sometimes, there are some things you have no control over. This …." He motioned around him. "Is one of them." Fugaku scowled as he gave the scroll to Itachi who began to read it with Shisui looking over his shoulder._

 _"The Hokage is getting what he deserves."_

 _Naruto burst through the Hokage tower his katana raised in the air. ANBU flickered into being in front of him but he didn't stop. Chakra chains laced out and grabbed them throwing them away as he stopped._

 _The Hokage sat at the desk, behind him was the ANBU Commander who had white hair and one glowing red eye. The ANBU Commander began to move forward but the Hokage just raised an arm as he spoke._

 _"Naruto…" There was nothing in his voice. It was just the voice of a man who was resigned to his decision. "So you have found out."_

 _"You don't sound happy old man?" Naruto asked mockingly. "Yeah, I found out, Hiruko was all too happy to inform me of what exactly he did for you and the 'payment' he got back in return."_

 _"I see." Hiruzen gave a sigh. "Hiruko was never really one to follow orders. A shame he gave in." Getting Hiruko to actually agree with the plan had been a mistake and a risk anyway. Orochimaru could have been chosen but he'd couldn't be found at the time and was another flight risk entirely._

 _"Does Jiraiya know?"_

 _"Will you continue down this path?" ANBU units surrounded the building, if Naruto disagreed and did try to get revenge, they would kill him. The Sandaime Hokage was confident in his village, Naruto didn't have control over the Hirashin, he could use it yes, but only after preparation which he didn't have now. Right now, surrounded by a veritable army, he was as good as dead._

 _"Does Jiraiya know?"_

 _"Is that question necessary?" The ANBU Commander stepped forward now, the katana in his hand glowing white. "Your Hokage demands a response Tiger." The use of Naruto's ANBU codename did nothing to calm the situation down, if anything it just made him angrier._

 _"Oh fuck off Hatake!" Naruto yelled. "_ I _want an answer. And I'll get it now! Now does Jiraiya know?" He began to pant heavily whilst his chakra went crazy in front of Hiruzen. A brief flicker of fear filled his body before he dismissed it. Kakashi was a powerful S rank ninja feared in all the world like his father. His sharingan and mastery over the Hatake family's unique chakra was not to be played with and he was a loyal shinobi of Konoha. Kakashi had been the one to train Naruto in the first place, he knew all of the blonde's tricks._

 _There was no way Naruto would be able to fight both him and Kakashi._

 _"Yes. He felt it best to honour her legacy."_

 _"Honour her legacy? Honour her fucking legacy now? What are you mad? This isn't honouring her legacy, this is pulling your pants and taking a shit on it!"_

 _"Konohamaru could have been dead!" Hiruzen yelled back. "This is the best way of ensuring the Kyuubi Jinchuriki stays in Konoha's hands and saving my grandson."_

 _"You're using my family in these sick twisted game of yours! Stay in Konoha's hands my ass!"_

 _"Jiraiya wouldn't want this you know…"_

 _Anger ripped through Naruto's body as he felt a feeling in his stomach which spread throughout his body. Killing intent spiked as he stood there. "That bastard!" Even as he spoke, he realised he had another question he wanted asked. "What else did you do?"_

 _"I see." The Hokage sighed. "I hoped you wouldn't go down this path but it seems for naught. Commander, if you will, Naruto is too dangerous now."_

 _"Don't fuck with me old man!" Naruto growled. Chakra began to circulate around his hand as he growled. "What else did you do?" The chakra formed an all too recognizable ball as he leapt forward his handsome features distorted into a scowl and his blue eyes glowing in anger._

 _Lightning crackled through the air as Naruto clashed with Kakashi whose sharingan eye spun wildly as it attempted to put Naruto under a powerful genjutsu. The sharingan briefly turned into the Mangekyo as Naruto fell backwards, his chakra being suppressed, Kakashi stopped the Chidori as he walked forwards his katana darting towards Naruto's neck._

 _Then it happened._

 _Red chakra oozed out of Naruto as he yelled in anger. The chakra was violent, and there was a hint of bloodlust in the air as the chakra came out. The chakra covered Naruto and it formed a tail which blocked the katana before another tail slammed into Kakashi's former position. Three other tails rapidly came out giving Naruto the strength to get back on his feet as he looked around in mild confusion. Five tails of red bubbling chakra whizzed around Naruto as he lifted himself up from the air._

 _Hiruzen sighed as he got up. It had always been a question, he'd asked himself. How had Naruto survived being born? His sister had died with a weak body, and for years, he'd thought Naruto's Koton had enabled him to live with a strong body. But now, that had been thrown out of the water. How Naruto's residual bijuu chakra had escaped being spotted was a question for another time._

 _"_ **Sandaime…"** _Naruto looked at his hands. "_ **Let's see how you like it when I kill you with the very power that you wanted to control and used my mother and my dead sister for."** _The fact that Naruto could so easily control it was alarming to Hiruzen but he ignored it. Naruto was now a threat, and as Hokage he had to deal with all threats to the village._

 _"As Hokage, it is my duty to protect Konoha," Hiruzen said as he took off his clothes revealing his battle robe underneath. "Even from you."_

 _"Fuck you old man! Fuck you and your family! Fuck your respect for this village! I'm going to kill you!"_

 _Naruto leapt at the Hokage his red tails swishing behind him and his face distorted into a frown. Hiruzen summoned his bo-staff and retaliated, with a large explosion of white._

* * *

 ** _Five Years Later_**

Itachi's red eyes locked onto the shinobi in front of him as he extracted the information needed. The man was barely chunin level and with him and his partner both being S-rank shinobi, there was no way this man could win. He was currently on a mission to investigate rumours of two S-rank nuke-nins of Suna in the area and from what he'd gotten, the rumours had been true.

"Itachi?" Shisui asked beside him. "What now?"

"The rumours were true."

"Hnn?" Shisui leaned against a tree before sighing.

"Pakura of the Shakuton and Sabaku no Gaia passed through this location less than 24 hours ago."

"Shit." Shisui's head snapped up. Both of those names were incredibly skilled shinobi and he doubted either his ability briefly. Pakura was a jonin renowned for her power in the Third Shinobi War, she'd used her Shakuton to wipe out dozens of shinobi and had briefly clashed with Kushina Uzumaki. Gaia on the other hand was the eldest daughter of the Kazekage and possessed his immense Jiton. Her power was similar to her father in that she could quell the Ichibi.

"Should we go after them?"

Itachi paused briefly before looking up. "We could go after them." The leaves rustled with his words as if they were angry. "But being so close to the border of the Land of Water, I do not wish to enter there." Kirigakure was still recovering from the civil war and its borders were closed off. No ANBU team that got into the country came back alive and though Itachi was skilled, he didn't want to test the waters.

"Damn." Shisui stretched as he got off the tree he was leaning on. "So… home now? Or do you want pocky?" A cheeky grin entered his face.

Itachi glared at the man before nodding. "Pocky first, then home." Itachi could already imagine the flavour of the pocky as it entered his mouth.

Shisui shook his head before following his friend on their journey.

As they walked, Itachi's mind briefly went over to his friend Naruto, what would he be doing now? Where would he be? Intel from the Toad Sage, had revealed that Naruto has more or less disappeared, there were sightings of him of course, but otherwise the blonde was gone. He'd been put into the bingo book as an S-rank nuke-nin with orders to kill on sight, the Uchiha clan had revealed the information of what the Hokage had done to Kushina and the other clans were furious angry even causing a rift between those in power and the clan leaders.

And Itachi was worried, Naruto had fought well against the Hokage and the ANBU, but in the end the blonde had lost, his chakra reserves unable to continue the barrage of techniques. Naruto's usage of his bijuu chakra had been impressive for his first time, with the chakra strengthening his blows and the power behind his techniques, Naruto had kept all of the shinobi on edge killing several ANBU teams. But in the end, the blonde had fled the village and within several days, he was outside of the country having escaped to the Land of Wind. From there, the blonde had just vanished.

Seemingly into thin air.

* * *

"So Sasuke." The boy looked away from the window and saw a pale-skinned dark haired boy calmly sitting down next to him with a Konohagakure forehead protector on similar to Sasuke. The boy had a tanto on his back and wore a black jumper over his shinobi outfit.

"Sai," Sasuke said with a sigh. "What now? Going to harass me because of my 'size'?"

The pale-skinned boy grinned as he took out a book and began drawing in it. "I grow tired of that. It lost the fun when you learned the Shunshin and started running away everytime I asked you."

Sasuke let a smirk out at a victory over his only rival in the class. Everyone else wasn't really worth his time. "But you learnt it off your brother too."

Sai shrugged. "It is useful, isn't it?"

"Hnn."

Sai rolled his eyes. Typical Uchiha response. "Of course, you only use it to escape your fangirls don't you?"

"Hnn."

Sai stretched his hands as he looked around the classroom. Seeing that this path wouldn't lead to a good conversation, he changed the topic. "So what team are you going to be on, Rookie of the Year?"

Here Sasuke looked up sharply before he sighed. "I don't know but it'll have the dead weight Sakura on it." He motioned to the other side of the classroom where the pink haired girl in question was arguing with Ino and a group of girls over Sasuke. "How she is the highest ranked kuinochi in the class astounds me, it should have been Yakumo." Between the two of them, there was no contest, Yakumo's clan training and skill easily trumped Sakura's.

"Yakumo joined two years ago, so she can't be the Kuinochi of the Year."

"Yakumo is the better one prepared to be a shinobi," Sasuke countered. "Besides Sakura's greatest skill is her brain which she doesn't use much in my opinion."

"Hmm."

"And she's not a fangirl."

Sai grinned. "There's that I suppose." He looked at his drawing and moved onto the next one. "Your other teammate?"

"… Konohamaru."

Sai nodded. "Ah." His gaze focused on the red-haired Sarutobi who was sitting in the classroom by himself in the corner. None of the clan heirs had a favourable disposition towards him. And the majority of the clan heads had a strong animosity towards Konohamaru. None of them new him well enough to make a judgement but the words of their parents kept them away.

Sai personally couldn't care less about Konohamaru, the boy was skilled, yes he was being trained on and off by one of the Sannin and he was trained by his grandfather but he was also highly arrogant and far too confident in his skills. Sasuke had had humility built into him by his brother and mother whilst his father cautioned vigilance against al threats. Sai's brother when he went all out could easily beat Sai which had made Sai less appreciative of his unique skills.

"You?"

Sai was briefly caught off guard by Sasuke's question till he responded. "Oh, I'll probably have Sora and Yakumo."

"That's a good team." Sasuke looked back out the window. "Sora's pretty good with taijutsu and has a couple of ninjutsu he knows and he's a good teammate, if a bit angry sometimes. Yakumo's the best kuinochi in the class, better than Hinata and Sakura. She's good with genjutsu and okay with taijutsu."

Sora sat in a group with Choji, Shikamaru and Kiba as the group talked animatedly about something. Several rows behind the boys was Hinata who continually looked around the room nervously as if someone was about to attack her. Yakumo sat at the front of the class next to a purple-haired girl and they talked quietly.

"Sensei?"

Sasuke shrugged. "Don't know, it'll have to be someone good though, at least A rank in the bingo book."

"Of course it will." Sai held up his drawing to Sasuke who looked over it with a nod before turning back. "Any sensei below that is not worth the time of a lowly genin like you. No, no they should be decorated solders and assassins of war. They should be ANBU Captains and prodigies who blitzed through the shinobi ranks. They should be _feared_ across the world. Then they will be worth the time of a genin. Especially the great and powerful Uchiha Sasuke." Sai finished his sarcastic 'speech' with a flourish of his hand.

A tick mark briefly appeared on Sasuke's face as Sai spoke. He sighed in annoyance before speaking. "I want someone who can teach me well and has proven to be powerful. I also want someone who can support me in my dream."

"In other words, you want your brother to be your sensei." Sai stuck his brush in his mouth briefly before putting it back to the parchment.

"I didn't say that."

"Umm," Sai countered. "You said 'teach me well' and 'proven to be powerful'. It's as if you want someone who can teach you solely. You do realise it's a team you're going to be on right?"

"Hnn."

"You are also aware that we don't actually get jutsus right? We're just _genin._ We can't be trusted with high level techniques."

"Hnn."

Anything Sai had to day in response was cut off as Iruka stepped into the room. The young chunin felt a spark of pride as he beheld his students for the past 6 years of academy learning. They had all blossomed under his tutelage. He felt a brief spark of anger at his 'partner' who had been caught attempting to steal the Scroll of Sealing. The fact the man had been doing such a thing had hurt Iruka and he briefly questioned the validity of the man's life.

"Okay genin!" The newly made genin all grinned as they listened to their sensei speak about the Will of Fire and the bond that Konoha ninja had with each other. Having heard all this before in Iruka's previous lessons, they didn't pay their full attention to it. Iruka could have yelled at them but he gave them a pass since it was the day they would become genin.

"Okay." Iruka reached into his pocket and pulled out a sheet of paper which the genin all perked up. This was the day they would set out and become ninjas. "I have with me sheets of paper directed to each genin, it has the location of where you will meet your jonin-sensei tomorrow. Please do not lose these papers, got it?"

"Hmm. Team One is Hisashi, Han and Ami…." Iruka continued through the list as he read them out. Most of them were civilians who Sasuke hadn't bothered to get to know and he watched as they all grinned at each in excitement. Very few civilians ever bothered to train and the ones that did all graduated early. The only civilians he knew who was good was Hisashi and Han who both seemed happy to be on the same team.

"Team Seven. Uchiha Sasuke." Sakura and Ino perked up in excitement whilst Sasuke groaned. "Sakura Haruno." Sakura gave a yell of victory whilst Sasuke hit his head onto the table. It didn't help that the fangirls kept going after him despite the fact he already _had_ a girlfriend. If anything it spurred them on to 'release their Sasuke-kun from his pain'. He snorted, his father was going to be sorting out marriage arrangements with his girlfriend's family soon, until then he ignored the fangirls. Stupid idiots.

"Konohamaru Sarutobi." Said boy said nothing except pull his scarf closer to him. "You sensei is Yamato Shimura." Sasuke noted that Sai stiffened briefly before continuing to paint. He frowned in confusion, before pulling out a small book. His jonin sensei was someone he hadn't heard before and his father had only given him a bingo book yesterday. He hadn't the time to look through it.

"Team Eight. Hinata Hyuuga." The girl froze and nodded her expression settling into a very nervous look. "Kiba Izunaka and Shino Aburame." The two boys nodded at each other pleased with their team. "Your jonin sensei will be Kurenai Yuhi."

"Team Nine is still in circulation from last year. Team Ten will be Choji Akimichi, Shikamaru Nara and Ino Yamanaka." The two boys nodded at each other whilst Ino moaned at being partnered with the 'lazy bum'.

"Team Eleven. Sai Shimura." Sai nodded to himself as he drew. "Yakumo Kurama. Sora Sarutobi." Sai's other teammates shrugged at each other before nodding. "Your sensei will be …" Iruka's eyes widened briefly as he saw the last name before he continued. "Hizashi Hyuuga." As Iruka spoke, he couldn't help but feel a sense of foreboding looking at the name.

"Hnn?" Sasuke looked up now in interest. "Receiving training from a member of the Hyuuga clan, you should feel honoured, even if it's the outcast."

Sai said nothing as he realised that his ink had run out. A bad omen indeed.

* * *

He should be dead.

He shouldn't be alive.

But here he was.

 _Alive._

His clan had cast him out, seeing him as an abnormal freak of nature. Someone who shouldn't exist.

A _paradox._

An anomaly within this violent world.

His clan's kekkai genkai had mutated, changed, it had grown to become something else entirely, a whole new level of power. The clan were scared, frightened of him. The village was frightened of him, the precious trust he had built up as a skilled jonin in the Third Shinobi World War was gone, replaced with fear as they believed he could go insane at any moment, like his ancestor. He'd given up so much for the village and this was how they treated him. Like a monster?

His arrival had been suspicious; directly after one of Konoha's beloved sons had killed the elders and had briefly put the Hokage in a coma as well as injuring the ANBU Commander. With no evidence to back up the story, he was immediately under suspicion and no-one trusted him. His clan had been shocked as a man who had been dead for more than four years had returned.

His son… loved him and was the only reason he believed he stayed in the village. If he got to see his son smile one more time, his son become a chunin, become a jonin, settle down and get married, see his grandchildren even, then he would be happy. He'd trained his son brutally teaching him techniques and skills he would otherwise not know. The results showed themselves, his son becoming a prodigy.

And he was still stuck as an anomaly.

Albeit an incredibly powerful anomaly.

But an anomaly none the less.

Briefly he ignored the sounds around him, the calls of the birds fading and the bustle of the city less than a kilometre away. His pale white eyes began to shift, changing into a unique cross-shaped design. His chakra began to rise coming to the surface like a tidal wave.

 ** _Suijin_** _(Godly Water)_

Water formed around him before expanding; as the water hit the ground it hissed as it eroded and completely destroyed the area around him. Saying nothing, he watched in mild interest at the sight reminding him of the difference between him and his clan. His strange eyes saw the unique purple chakra the water was saturated in before he continued.

 ** _Hoderi_** _(King of the Sea)_

A translucent blue chakra spread out from the man as he felt himself being brought up into the air. A skeleton was formed from his chakra, spreading out to form the basis of a massive skeleton which towered above the surrounding trees. Stuck in this shape, he let the chakra condense around him, forming skin and the shape of a large bo-staff in one hand. The chakra continued to form before he let the chakra die down.

The man landed on the ground lightly before he unsealed a bo-staff from his hand and let himself relax. Creating a clone he let the clone walk a good distance away before he let his eyes turn back to pale white.

His clone lifted a bo-staff as well before running at him. The two clashed in the middle with their bo-staffs exploding outwardly in a blast of wind. The clone reacted quickly, his staff expelling massive blasts of continuous wind pointed straight at him. The original however was not so easily cowed, and he expelled massive amounts of fire chakra from every pore of his body. The chakra condensed itself into a dome which blocked the blasts of wind before the original moved quickly enough to stab the clone in the neck.

The clone dispelled before the man went back to his original position and created another clone.

This was going to be a long day.

* * *

The man returned to his home, his byakugun watching the earth around him. Letting it fade, he entered his home sighing as a day's worth of training had drained his chakra reserves and his body was tired. He stopped though as a powerful chakra signature became known to him.

A black and a red eye greeted him as he entered the living room. A figure made itself known to him as Kakashi Hatake, ANBU Commander and powerful S rank shinobi of Konoha stood in the room. Kakashi covered his sharingan eye as the occupant of the house came in.

"ANBU-san?"

Kakashi looked up briefly as his eyes surveyed the room. His fingers on his left hand thrummed against his katana at his side before he spoke. "The Hokage has seen it fit to … grant you a mission."

"He has?" Briefly the man frowned. What kind of mission would the Hokage grant him?

"Yes. The Hokage is under the belief that bottling up a powerful shinobi is detrimental to Konoha as a whole."

The man's eyes flickered briefly to Kakashi's left hand which glittered in the room. The man had had his arm up to his elbow destroyed in the fight against Naruto, and the Hokage not wanting one of his most powerful shinobi to be incapacitated, had taken full advantage of the alliance with Sunagakure by fixing up his arm. Now his left arm was bolstered with unique talents which made him even more fearsome.

"What kind of mission?"

"You will be the leader of a genin team."

The man frowned. His brow creased in confusion. "Jonin-sensei? Hokage-sama is promoting me?" Having been a chunin for the past 5 years, the man had figured more or less that he wasn't going to become a jonin again.

"Hai, Hyuuga-san." Kakashi let out his chakra watching briefly as the banished Hyuuga flinched and took a step back. "Your skill is commendable, I believe greater than Yamato Shimura. Hokage-sama believes that with you having the same power as your … ancestor and not the mental instability, it will be a boon to have you become a jonin."

The man paused. He could accept the words of Kakashi, but to become a jonin would put even more suspicion on him.

Kakashi got up now as his chakra was reigned in. "Your team is to be met tomorrow. I wish you all the best no?"

The powerful ANBU Commander disappeared leaving Hizashi Hyuuga alone to his thoughts.

* * *

"Sometimes I wonder if the rumours are true, you know." A 20 year old girl with red hair and dark brown eyes asked as they jumped through the trees.

Her partner, a much older woman with orange hair and green tips looked back at her with a sigh. "What rumours Gaia?"

"You know what I'm talking about."

"No I don't."

Gaia grinned. "Yes, you doooo!"

"Gaia! Spit out with it!"

The girl sighed before she jumped off her branch and began to fall. Before she did, a mass of silver sand exploded from the ground and carried her like a tidal wave carries a surfer. Settling down Gaia smirked. "They say the only reason you're so frosty is because you haven't got that heat inside of you cooled down. Is that true Pakura-san?"

Pakura sighed as she restrained yet another urge to kill Gaia. Gaia was an incredibly annoying woman even in Sunagakure but now neither of them could kill the other due to their 'master'. This resulted in the red-head continually harassing Gaia.

"Pakura-san! Pakura!"

Pakura barely restrained her killing intent as she landed on the ground. Several metres in front of them, the land dipped away and formed a large cliff. The cliff was along the coastline of the Land of Fire. Beyond the cliff was a massive expanse of water which separated the two countries and to the south east was the Land of Water and Kirigakure.

As well as their target.

Letting out some chakra, Pakura activated several seals on her feet before looking over at Gaia who was behind her. "You can find your own way to the location can't you?" As she spoke, her killing intent spiked letting the girl know that she had better listen to Pakura. The girl cowed, her joking demeanour disappearing as the woman realised the seriousness of the question.

"Hai, Pakura-san."

"Good." Then Pakura jumped off the cliff…

… and hovered in the air, massive amounts of chakra propelling her feet forwards up and into the sky, behind her Gaia lifted up her hands as a wave of sand followed her and lifted her up into the air. Using her Jiton, Gaia let the sand go up higher and higher and then it began to move, moving quickly and rapidly in the air behind Pakura.

 ** _Um, sorry about being so late, but I moved houses. If anyone knows what it's like moving houses, then they'll realise what I'm going through. I had no internet since the 10_** ** _th_** ** _and it took a while to find the time to write with all the packaging and stuff._**

 ** _I did however finish the chapter on the 11_** ** _th_** ** _and started the next chapter. Yeah… Pakura and an OC, I put the OC in there for the story, you'll meet their 'master' later. The OC is Gaara's older sister, the same age as Naruto and Itachi. Also Naruto isn't really in the chapter apart from the flashback and part of the story will be in the view of other characters. But Naruto will reappear don't worry. Yamato and Sai are both now part of Konoha, eh? It'll be revealed later what made Naruto abandon Konoha, but by looking at the chapter, you can guess it can't you?_**

 ** _Leave a review please!_**


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 2**

 ** _So, I hope you liked the previous chapter and I'm bringing this new chapter in. Enjoy!_**

Birds chirped in the air at the start of a new day, the sun was rising and the rustle of leaves filled the air.

Sasuke briefly considered not getting up, but decided he may as well. He had a test today at Training Ground 7 with his teammates and his new sensei.

Stretching, the young boy let out a sigh, before getting up. Moving quickly, he had a shower staying under it for several minutes letting the water relax himself. Then Sasuke got dressed; he wore black pants, with a white shirt and the Uchiha clan symbol on the back. He had a ninjato strapped to his waist, and around his waist were several pockets which held shuriken and kunai. Tying it off, the young genin slid on the Konohagakure hiate on his head.

Sasuke smiled into his mirror before making his way downstairs, upon getting there he was greeted by his father who was busy reading some documents, his mother who was cooking and his five year old sister Rei who ran up to him to give him a hug.

"Sasuke-ni!"

Sasuke sighed and gave his sister a hug picking her up into the air briefly. He put her back on the ground and ruffled her hair telling her that he would be back and train her. The girl grinned in excitement before rushing off and Sasuke quickly his breakfast before heading out to the training ground where his team would be.

Sasuke made his way throughout the Uchiha Compound nodding at the other members who answered in return before leaving the compound. Making his way into Konoha, he began to jog letting his body stretch itself and he jumped onto the roof tops to escape attention. He jumped through the roofs for several minutes before arriving at his destination. Landing on the ground softly, he went over to the tree and leaned back on it closing his eyes ignoring the yells by Sakura and the curious glance of Konohamaru.

The trio stayed like this for several minutes until their sensei arrived. He was a plain looking man with a square face and black hair. The man wore a jonin vest along with black pants and had two tantos strapped to his back. The man's eyes focused on the group before he spoke.

"Team 7?"

There were nods from the three.

"My name is Yamato Shimura," the man began. "I am to be your sensei." Yamato paused as if waiting for a response before continuing. "Usually a sensei would ask to get to know their students but I have already seen your files and spoken to your parents. Thus I have decided the best way to test your skills is for each of you to face a clone of mine in battle. From there we shall begin with a one month trial phase and at the end, I shall decide whether or not you can be my students."

Sasuke nodded at the man's words. Sakura did too but the look on her face gave way to slight confusion. Konohamaru said nothing except grip the unique black bo-staff he had on the ground next to him.

"Good, my clones will only be fighting at chunin level." Yamato made a hand seal and the group watched in mild shock as wood began to come out from behind him.

 ** _Moku Bunshin_** _(Wood Clone Technique)_

Yamato had created thee clones of wood with one motioning towards Sakura and going to the centre of the clearing they were in. The pink haired girl went to the centre and took a stance whilst gripping a kunai in one hand.

* * *

Sai leapt back from an explosion as his team jumped through training ground 15. After meeting here in the morning, they had introduced themselves, with them not learning anything about their sensei before he has asked them to get a bell from him. The bell was wrapped around Hizashi's waist, immediately they had recognized it as a teamwork test but attempts to get the bell had failed miserably due to the man's immense skill and superior physical capabilities.

Sai leapt back from his branch as his sensei arrived his bo-staff swinging with massive amounts of wind chakra circulating around the head. The man tssk'd as he missed the genin but inwardly he was impressed. Despite the fact that he was only fighting at chunin-level, all of them were highly skilled for genin including Sai and when working together they could push him. Sora and Yakumo, he could chalk up to their clan training but Sai possessed a unique set of skills with his ink drawings. Hizashi was brought out of his musing as he felt a build-up chakra to his left.

 ** _Suiton: Teppodama_** _(Water Release: Gunshot)_

Hizashi used the shunshin to escape as the Teppodama crashed through his previous position. With his byakugun, he noted that it was Yakumo and his appraisal of their skills went up even further. Yakumo's skill in genjutsu was incredible, enough to catch him off guard even with his byakugun active, it was to be expected from a member of the Kurama clan. To see her use ninjutsu whilst unexpected, it was still incredibly well done. The girl's weakest point was her taijutsu as her body wasn't strong enough to withstand the blows. He mentally made a point to talk to some medic-nins about the issue before he disappeared and reappeared elsewhere clapping his hands at the genin. The three of them stopped, their breath heavy whilst their chest panted.

"Well done genin," Hizashi began. "Whilst you did not get the bell, you realized the true meaning of the test and for that you pass. Konoha is based around teamwork and I look forward to enhancing your skills even further."

The group of genin smiled, their faces lighting up in joy as they had become real ninjas now and would take missions to further their strength. Hizashi smiled briefly remembering his time as a genin under the Toad Sage Jiraiya before he continued speaking. "As genin, you will not learn ninjutsu techniques until you become chunin, the village cannot trust such low level shinobi with powerful techniques. You will have to strengthen your other skills before you can learn ninjutsu."

Sai nodded before asking a question that had eluded him. "Um sensei? How powerful were you just then?" He was curious to know just how far behind he was.

"Mmm?" Hizashi looked up briefly as he sensed chakra signatures watching him. The signatures he realised in his head were ANBU who were probably on orders by the Hokage to keep an eye on him. "I was fighting at chunin level, just then, no in fact I was low chunin level. In perspective, I was fighting at around high D rank to C rank."

Sora's eyes widened. "Then that means…"

"Yes," Hizashi said. "As genin, you are the lowest of the lows, and are incredibly weak and you will need to be trained well."

Sai nodded along with the man's words, his mind already set for his dream. _I need to get stronger, to join ANBU like ni-san._

* * *

Hiruzen put down his crystal ball and closed his eyes in contemplation. Hizashi Hyuuga was a flight risk in its own, the simple fact was that he was _dead_. He'd seen the body when he went to Kumo, Jiraiya had seen the body, heck even Kakashi had seen the body. How was the man alive? A special jutsu…? And when the man had returned, he possessed the same eyes as his ancestor Fujin Hyuuga, and everyone knew what happened with him.

 _People fear what they don't understand, and it blinds them, it blinds them to the truth Hiruzen, as Hokage you must know everything, every situation must have a beginning, middle and end._

Hiruzen briefly looked out of his city. The attack by Naruto had damaged the faith the clans had in him, they were now unruly, and untrusting of him the Hokage and Hiruzen understood that. His own son had heard of the truth and stayed far away from only interacting with him on brief missions. The rift formed between the Uchiha clan and the village had widened but there was no plans for a coup anymore, the clan was just wary of him. Hiruzen had ruined any kind of trust between him and the Fire Daimyo as well, the man was less than pleased upon hearing the real reason why Naruto had left and he had virtually torn him a new one. Naruto's status as a missing nin couldn't be revoked but Hiruzen had been forced to adopt a young boy called Sora who was now a genin.

 _As Hokage, you will have to do things that you won't like, little monkey, I pray that you will… keep your humanity even in Konoha's darkest hours._

* * *

Sasuke sighed as Sakura limped off the field. The girl had a good brain and knew how to use it theoretically but her other skills were abysmal. She didn't train very much in taijutsu and had incredibly low chakra reserves. This had led her to be defeated rather easily by Yamato who was shaking his head at Sakura. The girl's already damaged self-confidence took another hit as Sasuke walked past her without acknowledging her and stood ready for his spar with a confident grin.

Sasuke's opponent, one of the clones stood across from him with a bored look on his face. The original nodded and Sasuke exploded into action; shuriken hurtling towards his opponent, Yamato just leaned backwards calmly as the shuriken hurtled past him before turning to Sasuke only to find the boy suddenly in his space and his katana streaming towards him.

 _He's fast, I'll give him that. And that stance shows some skill…_

Sasuke's eyes turned red with two tomoes spinning in them before he engaged Yamato in kenjutsu. Despite his sharingan on and his speed, Sasuke was no match in kenjutsu with the much superior jonin as Yamato weaved in and out of his attacks, sometimes using his tantos to strike at Sasuke's exposed body parts on the blunt edge. Gritting his teeth, Sasuke used the shunshin to move in a quick movement but by the time he appeared Yamato was already on the other side, his chakra flaring briefly.

Sasuke sheathed his katana as he pondered his next choice, kenjutsu was out of the way, the man was much better than him in that regard and Sasuke doubted that taijutsu would work as well, seeing that the man was able to easily move faster than him and Yamato was much more muscular. He took a deep breath in before going through two hand seals and unleashing a jutsu which surprised the jonin.

 ** _Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu_** _(Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique)_

Yamato moved out of the way surprised that Sasuke had such skill with the Uchiha clan's coming of age jutsu. It was expected that Sasuke would know a range of fire jutsus, being taught by his clan but this level of skill with the Gōkakyū was incredibly high for a genin. To use two hand seals showed hours of training and perseverance with it (he doubted even some jonin could do that), Yamato realised that this was why Sasuke was the number one of the year, Sasuke trained relentlessly, and he didn't just have skill. Yamato could also sense that Sasuke had rather large chakra reserves for a genin which he chalked up to the boy's powerful Uchiha chakra. Excitement flowed through him as he imagined mentoring Sasuke and furthering his skills.

Sasuke threw some kunai at the man which missed as Yamato raised his tantos to block them. Making another noise, the young Uchiha attempted to cast a genjutsu on the clone and move in to attack, his katana sliding back out of its sheath as he ran lightning chakra through it. The clone was able to disperse the genjutsu easily but Yamato was incredibly surprised to see that Sasuke had more than one chakra nature.

 _For a genin, his skills are varied, some ninjutsu, kenjutsu, genjutsu and already capable of using more than one chakra nature, I'm impressed, the kid will go far if he continues down this path._

Yamato blocked the attack with his tantos raised up as he ran earth natured chakra through it. Despite the fact that lightning trumped earth, the tantos held strong due to superior control over the element. Sasuke was hit hard and his katana lost as Yamato decided to change the fight to taijutsu. The sudden change up allowed Yamato to have upper hand in the fight, even with Sasuke's sharingan, his speed and strength were not on par with Yamato's and his body was incapable of keeping up with eyes which were struggling to keep up.

Sasuke gritted his teeth as another punch smashed him in the face. _This is the difference between me and a chunin? I've got to get stronger if I want to keep up with ni-san._ He attempted to hit his sensei but his punch was reflected to the side and the boy received a powerful knock to the head for his troubles. Sasuke couldn't even touch his sensei and it irked him. He understood that he would be weak compared to the man but this easy defeat was unnerving, the fact the man was only fighting at chunin level was even more unsettling.

 _Is this how powerful Iruka-sensei is? Was he holding back in the spars we had?_

Spinning wildly, Sasuke surprised his sensei by going in for a hug, the man attempted to twist out of but Sasuke already had a good grip on him. Yamato's eyes widened as lighting chakra began to pulse out of Sasuke into his body. Before Sasuke could continue however, the man reacted quickly by flaring his chakra disrupting Sasuke's lightning chakra and throwing the young genin backwards with a powerful kick. Sasuke was flung into a large tree where he stayed for a moment to regain his bearings.

Before Sasuke could get up, he was stopped as his sensei rose a hand.

"Well done," Yamato began as he dispelled his wood clone. "I honestly didn't expect you to be this skilled. It seems the talk about you has been true. You are indeed talented, and it won't take long for you to catch up to your brother." Yamato looked to Konohamaru now. "Your turn."

As he spoke, Yamato couldn't help but feel a sense of apprehension. It was well known to the older generation that Konohamaru Sarutobi was the Kyuubi Jinchuriki. It was also well known that the seal holding him was reinforced with the power of the Death God. The power of the seal was well known and Konohamaru whilst not loved wasn't treated with scorn like some other jinchuriki. Yamato wasn't scared of the boy, he could easily use the Mokuton to keep him sedated. What he was worried about was the boy's mentality. Konohamaru had few friends his age and kept those who wanted to be friends far away. In other words, Konohamaru was an unknown variable who no-one knew how to handle.

The scarf-wearing genin took his place against the last wood clone with his bo-staff raised high. At a nod from the original Yamato, the boy shot forward at a speed which stunned his sensei and teammates. Reaching Yamato, he swung the bo-staff with massive amounts of fire chakra pouring out from the tip. The fire chakra burnt brightly and Yamato idly noticed that it seemed much hotter than Sasuke's. He could chalk it up to training with the Sandaime and Jiraiya of the Sannin.

 ** _Suiton: Suijinheki_** _(Water Release: Water Encampment Wall)_

On the sidelines Sasuke was surprised that his sensei was using ninjutsu even if it was only defensive in nature. It still remained that the man was now feeing some threat by Konohamaru. As he watched the young boy move backwards away from the clone, Sasuke mentally tried to remember how skilled Konohamaru was. Realizing that the boy had never really fought him in the academy or had been there as long as he had made him take notice of the fight and ignore the hushed tones of Sakura.

 ** _Kage Bunshin no Jutsu_** _(Shadow Clone Technique)_

Shadow clones of the red-haired Sarutobi appeared everywhere rushing towards his sensei, surprised that the boy knew such a high level technique, Yamato engaged in combat his tantos blocking the swings of the shadow clones' bo-staffs. The dispelling of several clones caused Konohamaru to get angry and it could be seen clearly on his face as he put his bo-staff on his back.

"Don't underestimate me!" Konohamaru yelled. Three of the clones backed off from their sensei and all of them began to go through hand seals with the original as Yamato could sense another chakra nature being used by the child.

 ** _Doton: Doryūheki_** _(Earth Release: Earth-Style Wall)_

Four relatively large walls of earth rose up surrounding Yamato's clone. The walls of earth began to be pushed forward as Konohamaru attempted to trap in Yamato. The clones of Konohamaru began to move forward and rushed their sensei who began to get even more alarmed as their bodies began to radiate massive amounts of chakra.

 ** _Bunshin Daibakuha_** _(Clone Great Explosion)_

The explosions of the clones rocked the area stunning the spectators and the original Yamato. Sasuke couldn't believe that Konohamaru was this skilled, he had never shown this strength at the Academy. Sakura couldn't believe someone in her class was stronger than the Sasuke whilst Yamato was of a different mind. This level of strength for the Kyuubi jinchuriki was to be expected especially from the apprentice of the Toad Sage and the grandson of Hiruzen Sarutobi. He noted that his clone had survived by using the Kawirimi to escape the Daibakuha.

Yamato's clone appeared on the other side having substituted with a log and he seemed to be pleased. He was pleased, two genin of such extraordinary skill would go well as shinobi in the forces of Konoha. All that was left was Sakura….

"Damn!" Konohamaru growled as he had missed. How could he have missed! He was the Kyuubi jinchuriki and the grandson of the Sandaime Hokage! His bo-staff was raised in his hand as he poured chakra into it which he released in a swing and a yell. "I'll show you, kore! The power of a Sarutobi!"

The Yamato clone was stunned at the usage of three chakra natures and he was cut in half with a triumphant Konohamaru cheering over his victory and the others looking at him in curiosity.

"Um, well done Konohamaru," the original Yamato said. "I didn't expect you to actually defeat my clone but it was a surprise to see that you had more than two chakra natures at your age."

The boy grinned, his red hair bouncing in the wind at his sensei's words. Sasuke gave him a sideways glance before looking back at Yamato whilst Sakura did nothing except look at the ground in embarrassment.

"Now," Yamato continued. "We are Team 7."

* * *

The number of jonin-sensei that bustled into the Hokage's office was quite numerous with the office space feeling quite cramped. Hiruzen had a keen eye over them and he felt a twinge of sadness as his son didn't even look at him before he squashed it. There was no time for such thoughts not now anyway. He motioned towards the jonin and they all began to recite their success or failure with the genin.

"Team One, pass," a jonin with dark hair and member of the Uchiha clan said. "They have good teamwork and Hisashi and Han were good enough to help out the last member of the team. Both of the boys are skilled."

The list went on with a female jonin going and the Hiruzen was disappointed as team 2-6 all failed their exams. What was happening to let such a majority of Konoha's young people to be denied a chance to become shinobi and defend their village?

"Team 7, pass," Yamato said calmly. "For now, I'm giving them a one month trial phase in the village. Both Sasuke and Konohamaru are incredibly skilled for genin whilst Sakura needs a _lot_ of work, she has zero taijutsu skill and her other skills are just as abysmal."

Hiruzen nodded, his grandson was very skilled and it would have been an insult to the Sarutobi clan if the Hokage's grandson and the Kyuubi jinchuriki had failed.

"Team 8 pass barely," Kurenai said with a sigh. "Kiba is brash and impatient. Shino is always about 'logic' and Hinata has incredibly low self-esteem, it was pure luck that they managed to pass. Whilst Kiba and Shino are fine, Hinata needs serious work, I recommend her seeing a Yamanaka."

Hiruzen nodded again. "Go to Iniochi and ask about it. It wouldn't do to have the heir of the Hyuuga clan to have issues like this." Kurenai nodded at Hiruzen's words.

Asuma spoke next and his tone was curt and professional. "Team 10 pass, Shikamaru is lazy, Choji is reluctant and Ino bossy but they have good teamwork and trust each other built up from being friends their entire life." The man stepped back avoiding the Hokage's gaze.

"Team 11." Hizashi's voice drew the Hokage's attention now and the others began to look at him. "Passed. Immediately understood the message of teamwork and all have good skills. Yakumo however needs a stronger body as she cannot take hits seriously."

The Hokage nodded and dismissed the jonin before they left. As he sat in his desk, two shinobi appeared in his office. Kakashi and Itachi.

"Hmm?" ANBU matters were dealt with by Kakashi as the ANBU Commander, there was no need to come to him.

"Hokage-sama," Itachi began. "The mission you sent us on was true. We travelled to the coastline and interrogated a chunin there, there Shisui and I were told that Pakura of the Shakuton and Sabaku no Gaia were in the area and were presumably near the border of Kiri. We decided not to pursue them due to their close proximity with the border."

 _Ah,_ Hiruzen thought. _I see._ The special cases revolving around Pakura and Gaia were unique. Pakura was a descendant of the Nidaime and Shodaime Kazekage's and was the last member of their respective clans. She also possessed their Shakuton bloodline limit and was wanted badly by Sunagakure. Her power was of an incredibly high order she was said to be gaining skill comparable to her ancestors especially the Nidaime Kazekage who was known as the God of Wind. Apparently she could fly now which would improve her combat ability immensely.

Gaia on the other hand was the daughter of the Yondaime Kazekage and was the only child who possessed his Jinton. Her power eerily similar to her father except she could control silver sand and she was the 'next generation' of the Land of Wind. Suna wanted her badly and were willing to pay through the nose with a gigantic bounty on her head which garnered attention all over the world. Despite the bounty, Gaia was a feared S-rank shinobi and she was capable of fighting off ANBU units by herself and defeating bounty hunters easily.

"This is no longer our concern Itachi," he said calmly. "They are now in the Land of Water and as such for now are outside our jurisdiction. I will send an ANBU unit to an outpost nearby." Itachi nodded briefly and disappeared along with Kakashi in a shunshin leaving the Sandaime to his thoughts. And as usual for the past five years, the Sandaime sent his ANBU out of the room and began to think descending into the recesses of his mind.

 _Little Monkey._ _That voice… that taunting voice of his sensei Tobirama._ It followed him everywhere after Naruto ran and it was the only thing that truly unnerved him.

 _What do you want?_

 _I'm just curious, Hiruzen, how far have you fallen? To use my sister clan in these games of yours? To use my clan in these games of yours? To abuse the trust the clans have in you? To play God over people when you are nothing more than a man._

 _What I do is for the good of Konoha! You would have done the same in my position sensei, you would have wanted to…_

 _Done the same? Idiot, I wouldn't have done the same, no I would have exhausted_ _ **every**_ _single avenue before even thinking about leaving them for the prey. And that's not to mention the_ _ **destruction**_ _of my clan!_

 _Every hidden village is wary of the Senju, it's the Senju this, it's the Senju that, even when I became the Hokage, I was always in_ _ **your**_ _footsteps. I needed to ensure the village wasn't always reliant on the Senju clan to survive._

 _So you wiped them out? Ordered them to take suicide missions? What did you tell them as they died? 'You are providing a good service to Konoha and are honouring the memories of the Shodaime and Nidaime Hokage's', I can imagine them dying on the battlefield imagining themselves as heroes whilst in reality, they were so far from the truth. But Tsunade survived, didn't she? She lived past all your stupid suicide missions and she_ _ **thrived**_ _. Maybe Madara was right hmm? I suppose it's true, you were about to kill his clan._

 _Tsunade's survival was unexpected, no-one expected her to become so strong, and when she did, she became valuable to us. Nawaki on the other hand was an unfortunate incident. A pity his body wasn't found._

 _Oh, she was valuable. She saved lives and became a hero! You couldn't just kill her could you? Not when even the Daimyo wanted her talents. You then watched as she was ruined mentally and that was a surprise to you, wasn't it? Danzo was always … sneaky._

 _I didn't expect Danzo to do that! And instead of 'strengthening her', it made her weak! She became ruled by her emotions and left the village. Just when a war started as well. We couldn't find her and she almost became a missing nin if it wasn't for the stupid Daimyo._

 _It did, then Nawaki died! You say he was 'an unfortunate incident'. What a lie. You knew exactly what you were doing, didn't you? You wanted him to awaken his latent 'Senju power'. You could sense the tension between the nations after the Second War and you wanted a powerful figure head. Only for him to die and leave you without your figurehead._

 _Well, Minato survived didn't he? At least one of_ _your_ _line was kept alive, even if he didn't know about it._

 _A hidden Senju is a dead Senju. The boy never claimed his inheritance, his father had left the village and when he was brought back he was an orphan given the name Namikaze, something for him to hold on to. And he still turned out to be a prodigy, truly exceptional._

 _A prodigy? Like his son? His son who abandoned his village? His son who spat on the Will of Fire? His son who is now a nuke-nin wanted all over the world for disgusting crimes!_

 _Village! You speak of the Will of Fire as if it is the solution to every single problem! The Will of Fire in Hashirama's eyes was to give out the bijuu to the other villages, and when he died,_ _ **I**_ _was the one who was picking up after his mess. I was the one who had to take steps to ensure that they didn't wipe us out. Mito refused to her bijuu powers leaving us defenseless. Stupid bitch almost killed us all._

 _We have a bijuu now and a jinchuriki, under_ _ **my**_ _rule, Konoha will be number one in the …_

 _We have a jinchuriki now! Listen to yourself you idiot! You have a jinchuriki who is an experiment you idiot. Born out of Senju and Uzumaki blood, you bastards tamper with things you cannot understand. You speak as if Konoha's strength will regain its glory like when it was just Konoha and no other village! Back then we had_ _ **all**_ _the bijuu, we could crush anything and then Hashirama just gave it away. If only I had used my full power, the power of Tobirama Senju, the power of a thousand waves. The power of the Senju. I could have ended all those hidden villages and created peace. But no I died._

 _I'm listening to a dead man speak. One who has no say in my life anymore. You are dead sensei deal with it!_

 _Dead? I could be dead. I could also be a figment of your imagination. Who knows? Perhaps I am dead, or maybe I'm still alive. It's all up to you to decide isn't it? Just like you decided to use that poor Uzumaki girl and her child Saru. Just like you exploited Mito's brain in old age and got the secrets of the Uzumaki clan isn't it? Just like you…_

 _"_ _ **Enough!"**_

The toot of an owl awoke Hiruzen from his argument and he glanced up around the room. His chakra calming down as he barely sensed a chakra signature in the room. Having sent Kakashi out he knew it wasn't him and there was only oneshinobi who could get so close to him in Konoha anymore.

"Jiraiya," Hiruzen said finally. He wiped his brow only to realize that he was sweating profusely.

The air shimmered as the white haired man appeared, Hiruzen nodded at him and Jiraiya took a seat as the silencing seals were activated in Hiruzen's office.

"Sensei," the Toad Sage said sarcastically. "Such an honourespecially after your little talk."

Hiruzen scowled, he hated telling the man about Tobirama. Now the man mocked him at every opportunity about it. "Don't talk to me like that, Jiraiya!" he snapped.

The Sannin gave a sigh and leaned back in his chair. "Why not? There's nothing else to do, I don't feel like doing research anymore and I'm bored as hell. Why not talk to the devil?"

Hiruzen glared at the man at his last few words till Jiraiya shrugged and leaned forward. "I've got news, sensei."

"Oh? What news?"

"Big news," Jiraiya responded. "World changing."

A frown creased Hiruzen's face. "World changing?" What kind of news would force Konoha's spy master back into Konoha?

"There's an organization," Jiraiya began, his expression changing into one of urgency. "They're located in Ame but can go global if need be, in fact all of Rain Country is under this group's control and that includes the shinobi of Ame, the leaders of this organization are S-rank according to my intel. And among them is the 'master' and the one in control. They've taken control over Kusagakure, Tanigakure, Ishigakure, and Takigakure and are pretty much the sixth major village already."

Hiruzen's eyes widened briefly. "Are you sure?" This meant that Rain Country now had control over a massive portion of the continent and could place massive taxes on other villages. Going around for trading was dangerous and the seas surrounding the Elemental Nations were incredibly volatile and only the most experienced sailors attempted to cross it.

"Hai."

"Then what could such an organization want?" Hiruzen asked. "Such aggressive moves will alert attention which they won't need and with a collection of presumably S-rank nuke-nins, there is sure to be dissent among their ranks isn't there?" Not to mention the fact that this organization now had the jinchuriki of the Nanabi.

"Peace."

"Peace? Don't play games with me Jiraiya! You know that there is no such thing as peace, my sensei's tried and failed. I tried and failed, you tried to get it but failed. Minato tried as well and he failed and he was best of us! Peace now? The other nations hate us and our 'alliance' with Suna is more fragile than ever! Yet you say an organization of S-rank nuke-nins want peace!"

"Maybe if you hadn't bullied the Kazekage into getting Kakashi a new hand then it wouldn't be like this!"

"Kakashi needed a new hand! The Kazekage was being uncooperative, there had to be other methods we could use."

"I agree, but there are better ways than threatening to release the Ichibiinto the village! You had the whole country on alert, you know just how powerful a bijuu is. Now the Kazekage's son has been trained by him personally and is much more powerful than we ever could have bargained!"

Hiruzen closed his eyes and took a deep breath before continuing. "Can you get into Ame?"

"Hmm? No."

"No?" Hiruzen frowned at the man. Jiraiya was well known for being able to sneak into any location, what was different now?

"According to my intel, the rain that surrounds Rain Country is a technique used by the leader of this organization, Akatuski is the name of the organization. The technique allows the leader to sense anyone and everything in the country. Attempts to burrow underground will fail as well according to my intel."

Hiruzen's eyes widened. Such a technique would consume massive amounts of chakra, how on earth could the leader of an organization have that much power? He frowned as he realised a hole in Jiraiya's story. "Your intel has a lot of information regarding Ame, Jiraiya."

The Toad Sannin sighed. "Orochimaru whilst a bastard loves to gloat, that's what he told me when I attempted to get into the Land of Rice."

"Orochimaru's a member?" Alarm bells began to ring in Hiruzen's brain as he heard that information.

"Hai."

"Who else?"

"Orochimaru didn't tell me all the members," Jiraiya stated. "But the one's he did are dangerous. Kisame Hoshigaki, the Yondaime Raikage's sister and Naruto…" Jiraiya's expression changed into a forlorn one as he thought of his godson who he had failed.

"I see." Hiruzen leaned back in his seat. Naruto… His brain ran through scenarios as he imagined ways to get the blonde, whilst he was sorry for what he did, it had to be done. It had to be done, that's what he kept telling himself as the clan heads treated him much more care and fear than they had before. It's what he told himself as the sun went down and he went home to see his grandson. It had to be done. "We need to…"

"I haven't finished."

"What is it now?" Hiruzen snapped.

"I found information regarding the masked man."

Hiruzen shot up in his chair now. Before Kushina had died, she'd told them of the masked man who had gone after the Kyuubi, with that information the Uchiha clan had been the number one suspects. "What kind of information?" The only people who knew about the masked man could be counted on one hand. Kakashi, Jiraiya and himself. Naruto hadn't been told with the information, he was regarded as too volatile.

"The masked man may be after the bijuu."

"What?" Hiruzen couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"You heard me," Jiraiya said. "The Sanbi disappeared from its lake several months ago and Kiri hasn't reclaimed it, I know that for sure. Witnesses say that a group of three got hold of the bijuu and an orange mask was seen among it."

"The bijuu…" Hiruzen said. The masked man who they believed to be Madara now wanted the bijuu. This made him very concerned as the last time the man got a hold of a bijuu, he had caused massive amounts of damage.

"Hai. You know what that means?"

"Konohamaru will have to be trained extensively," Hiruzen replied. "As he is now, he is low chunin level but he'll have to get much stronger than that if he wants to survive against Madara…"

"Yeah." Jiraiya gave a sigh as he leaned back. "More work for me giddy."

"This is important Jiraiya! Konoha is at risk here."

"Isn't it always?" Jiraiya shot back. "Assassinations, kidnappings, murder, we're shinobi. We kill, lie and cheat others, it's expected for us to get enemies. Konohagakure is always at risk from the outside and the inside."

"Is that all Jiraiya?" Hiruzen snapped. "Or maybe you've come to continue mocking me?"

"No," the man stood up now. His chakra flaring as he spoke. And when he did, a chill went up Hiruzen's body at the meaning behind those words.

"There's a thorn among the leaves."

 _ **So there's the chapter, hope you liked it and yeah. I had fun writing it. I hope to have next chapter up in a little bit, if I can. If you understand, Tobirama was more powerful here in canon and has a grudge to pick against his brother. In my eyes, Hashirama's decision to just give away the bijuu must have gotten some criticism no?**_

 _ **Leave a review.**_


	4. Chapter 4

_Chap 3_

 _ **AN. Got some reviews! Yeah! If some people are wondering why Nagato/Konan/Yahiko are different, it's simple they were never trained by Jiraiya. They were trained by Hanzo. As a result, they never met Tobi and Zetsu is only in the organization because of his infiltration skills. Oh and Tobi is unique, something that hasn't been used before.**_

"Arghh!"

From within the halls and corridor of Otogakure, that simply cry rendered through the air.

Orochimaru the Snake Sannin watched from his position behind the glass-which acted as a window into a room- as a group of people in lab coats ran throughout their room. In the centre of the room was a table where a white haired teenager was screaming in pain as injections were put into his body. The white haired boy had shark-like teeth which were currently gritting in pain.

"Uhhh." Orochimaru turned his head as Juugo came up to him with his friend Kimimaro behind him. The boy motioned towards the boy inside the room. "Will Suigetsu be okay?"

"Suigetsu-kun knew what he was getting into," Orochimaru said calmly. "A chance to be free of his clan's weakness and a chance to gain a sword crafted by the God of Ame himself. A sword with the powers of Samehada. What budding swordsman could resist?" He motioned towards a large katana in the room which was currently strapped to a table as it made attempts to cross over to Suigetsu. The katana's oddly shaped blade appeared to be scales and its handle was finished with a large blue gem which was absent in most katana these days.

"Are you sure?" Juugo continued.

"Do not worry," Kimimaro said calmly as he put a hand on Juugo's shoulders. "The God of Ame cured me and helped me serve Orochimaru-sama better. We must trust his judgement."

Orochimaru turned back to Suigetsu. "Hashirama's DNA is unique. It can heal at an accelerated rate but it can also provide stability. An old … ally mine attempted to get a hold of the Iburi clan for himself but they were susceptible to wind and were easily defeated. Someone possessing Hashirama's DNA was able to stabilise a member of the clan and get rid of the DNA. That is what is happening to Suigetsu now. It is just painful, that's all."

Juugo nodded slowly. "When will he be able to fight?"

"If he survives, a couple of weeks." Orochimaru's gaze went back to the strange katana on the table. "With his sword healing him, a couple of days perhaps."

"Argh!"

"Tssk." Orochimaru watched the young boy in annoyance as he mentally began to think about his village that he made and the steps taken to make it.

He'd left Konohagakure in retreat ten years earlier, his laboratories destroyed by the Hokage's ANBU. His anger at the Hokage for throwing him out when he should have been Hokage instead of that Minato brat, when he should have been treated like a hero considering that his experiments were for the betterment of Konoha had been like a tidal wave. He found it amusing that he was branded a criminal due to his meddling with the DNA of powerful shinobi when the Elder Council of Konoha had been doing exactly that. Swearing vengeance he wandered the land encountering nuke-nin everywhere.

Nuke-nin were a strange bunch, highly superstitious and highly dangerous. They went around the world always with one hand in their pockets and a sense of danger following them. They'd abandoned their villages and they were nothing more than loose cannons who were capable of causing massive amounts of damage everywhere. Their skills always had to be as sharp as they could be and they trusted no-one. Most nuke-nins had committed heinous crimes whilst others may have been betrayed by their villages or their Daimyo. It was this world which Orochimaru entered into.

Attempting to navigate this world had been Orochimaru when he first became a nuke-nin. Immediately he began to realise he wasn't the only person who was scorned, he wasn't the only person who was angry at the world. Nuke-nin were violent aggressive and more often than not had a grudge to pick on anyone. This world was the one Orochimaru came into contact with. He'd immediately picked a simple solution in his opinion. A solution which could grant him many powerful allies. What was the solution? To give them a home and in the process create a powerful hidden village.

But what could he a nuke-nin himself do? Despite his power and immense skill, Orochimaru wasn't trusted or guaranteed to give nuke-nin a home. He couldn't promise them anything. And so Orochimaru was forced to make concessions, to give away massive amounts of money. In his attempt to create the powerful body, he had watch as those he wished to inhibit escaped from him. He was forced to pick children who were easily manipulated, children who had nothing else to look up to and from there Otogakure (Hidden Sound Village) was born.

Akatsuki had been a major contributor to Otogakure, the powerful organization heeded by Konan, Yahiko and Nagato were able to assist Orochimaru by giving him massive amounts of money needed to fund the village and also to pay off those to keep quiet. The organization possessed powerful members who were capable of quelling any opposition. Yahiko was one such member. The first time Orochimaru had been introduced to Yahiko, he was Nagato's close confidant. After seeing the man's skills for the first time, Orochimaru knew exactly what kind of person Yahiko was.

He was the cleaner.

Someone who cleaned up the mess of others. Someone who hunted down others mercilessly. Yahiko was the Commander of the Hunter-nin in the now expanded Rain Country, as well as the Commander of the ANBU and he had a prestigious position as a high ranking member of the Akatsuki. Orochimaru made no attempts to leave the organization, not now anyway, Yahiko, Konan and Nagato would down whoever left the organization mercilessly. Nagato acted as the leader of Ame and the organization. Konan was the political figure and the Daimyo of the new country. And Yahiko was the Undertaker, a feared S rank ninja all over the world.

The organization wasn't bad. Orochimaru was given several black cloaks with red clouds to give to people he felt could be indicted into it. The cloaks were given to Kabuto his spy, Kimimaro, Juugo and Suigetsu. He himself wore a ring with '''' in addition to his cloak. This ring signified that he was in the upper echelon of Akatsuki and enabled the members to contact each other. It also helped Nagato in identifying where each member was.

"Orochimaru-sama!" The Sannin glanced up to see one of the scientists step out of the room. "The procedure is done! What is left now is for the patient to … recover."

Orochimaru nodded. Suigetsu now lay on the bed panting heavily but no longer screaming. His body seemingly full of chakra, from here Orochimaru could sense the massive amounts of Senju chakra adapting to his body. The chakra was blinding for most but for Orochimaru, it was normal. One did not spend long periods of time with powerful shinobi such as Sakumo Hatake, Hiruzen Sarutobi and Minato Namikaze without being accustomed to powerful chakra. Orochimaru himself possessed a powerful chakra presence.

"Let Suigetsu's sword free," Orochimaru said. "The sword will help heal the boy if previous calculations are correct."

The scientist nodded curtly and returned into the room. Rushing; the scientist quickly undid the straps holding back the unique katana and Orochimaru watched as the katana seemingly flew across the room only to land next to Suigetsu and chakra pouring out of it as the sword healed the child. Suigetsu's laboured breathing calmed down and the boy closed his eyes and slept, his sword rubbing itself against him and what appeared to be joy.

Orochimaru turned and strode away from the scene, his mind already onto his next topic. With Suigetsu healed and his loyalty to Otogakure all but secured, Orochimaru's mind went to the next issue on his agenda. Something that had arisen when he joined the Akatsuki.

Hiruko.

The man had been a former teammate of the Sannin and had been skilled back in Konoha. When he'd 'died', he was a skilled A rank ninja and incredibly resourceful. Now after years of being on the run and hiding, information from Naruto had revealed that the man was not only S rank in nature but also a coveter of the one thing that Orochimaru wanted other than the perfect body and a vast wealth of techniques.

Bloodlines.

Naruto had said that Hiruko had a strange technique that allowed him to steal the kekkai genkai's of shinobi. This technique gave Hiruko immense power and he possessed the Meiton, capable of stealing chakra from people, Naruto's own kekkai genkai and several others. Orochimaru was giddy with excitement at taking the technique but first of all he had to somehow find the man and then defeat him and take his kekkai genkai technique.

And that was easier said than done.

* * *

 _"_ _ **What do you want boy?"**_ the rumbling voice echoed throughout the mindscape of a 14 year old girl. The mint haired girl in question was sleeping whilst a tall muscular man with red hair and unique eyes spoke to her host _. "_ _ **Haven't you done enough?"**_

"I wish to speak to you Nanabi," the man replied. "About my proposition."

 _"_ _ **Proposition? You speak as if I care about your proposition or your organization. I only care for my host**_ _,"_ the Nanabi replied as one of its tails curled up around Fuu and brought her closer to itself. _"_ _ **Fuu is my only concern as of now. The concerns of your childish mind are irrelevant to someone like me."**_

Nagato gave out a sigh. It had been like this ever since Takigakure had been annexed into Amegakure. Akatsuki had been mildly surprised to discover that a jinchuriki had been living in the village and Nagato had taken it upon himself to 'convince' the bijuu that Akatsuki was for good. Fuu was relatively easy, she just wanted to be treated normally, the Nanabi however was much harder to convince for one simple fact.

The Nanabi hated humans.

Having being kept inside a human for decades, the Nanabi's interpretation of the human race was low. The insect like bijuu had seen the worst of the human race as its jinchuriki was looked as an outcast and confined to the village. The only time, its jinchuriki was allowed out, there was a large seal which could remotely kill it as well as seal the bijuu inside of the dead body indefinitely. This had shaped what the Nanabi saw humans as.

And thus the bijuu rejected all propositions brought forward by Nagato.

"I can free you," Nagato replied. "Fuu will live and …"

 _"_ _ **I'll be nothing more than a pet for you,"**_ the Nanabi replied. _"_ _ **I know your kind, you see us bijuu as weapons and that will what I'll be for you."**_

"Can you not see that I'm different?" Nagato asked. "I've not sent your jinchuriki on suicide missions, I've treated her normally. I've done everything possible."

The Nanabi snorted. " _ **Just because you have tou-san's Rinnegan doesn't mean you're his reincarnation. Compared to tou-san, you're nothing in front of him, you possess neither his skill nor his power nor do you possess his chakra, you're nothing more than a faker."**_

"That is your final answer?" Nagato asked.

 _"_ _ **Yes it is."**_

"I see." Nagato disappeared from the mindscape and opened his eyes to see his friends Konan and Yahiko watching him. Beside him, the unconscious body of Fuu lay on a large bed.

"So?" Yahiko asked. He stretched against his chair, his long katana laid on the floor next to him. "What did the bijuu say?"

"No." Nagato took in a deep breath as he waited for his friend's answers. These two had been with him since the start and all three of them knew each other like the palms of their hands.

"No?" Konan asked. "Meaning?"

"She won't join us. Or maybe it's a he? Doesn't matter, the Nanabi has experienced much pain in her life due to humans and refuses to consort with us apart from Fuu. It seems like Fuu and the Nanabi have formed a connection."

"Hnn." Yahiko cracked his neck in irritation. "So that means, we can't just bulldoze our way into Konoha and kill the Sandaime doesn't it?"

"We should have the Sanbi as well as our forces and the forces of Iwagakure if the treaty goes well," Konan said calmly. "But it does mean it's harder. Fuu has only mastered a tail of her bijuu chakra and if we wish for her to have the same companionship with her bijuu like Kirabi Yotsuki and Akio, then we need to have the Nanabi's co-operation."

"We could just take control over it can't we?"

"I'm not sure that's possible Yahiko." Nagato knew how powerful he was and what he was capable of but he doubted that he would be able to command a bijuu like Madara Uchiha or Hashirama Senju. "The Rinnegan whilst powerful does not boost my genjutsu abilities to the level of the Mangekyo sharingan."

That had always alluded Nagato. Any information they had on the Mangekyo was due to Naruto having stolen it from Danzo. The Rinnegan was the most powerful kekkai genkai on the planet, capable of making Nagato powerful enough to resurrect people from the dead. Yet it wasn't capable of letting him summon a skeleton from his eyes, blast out unquestionably hot black fire and use incredibly overpowered genjutsu on his enemies.

What the hell?

Nagato would have loved to do all those things but sadly, the Rinnegan didn't allow that. The dojutsu of the most powerful man in the world and progenitor of chakra was incapable of doing things a lesser dojutsu could do? He'd attempted to use the Susanoo after Naruto had told him about the Mangekyo sharingan. The attempt to make a skeleton of war even with Sage Mode active had failed and the chakra output had blinded sensors in Amegakure for several days. After that, Nagato didn't try anymore, he didn't even want to test out Amaterasu and Tsukuyomi.

"Huh," Yahiko said. "So what do we do? If intel is correct, our spy says that whilst strained, Konoha's alliance with Suna is still strong. On the day of our planned attack, Suna's kage and jinchuriki will be there, and rumours indicate that whilst he's young, he's incredibly powerful." Yahiko got up now. "Anyway, I'll be going." Yahiko disappeared in a puff of smoke as his sword went with him. Konan nodded at Nagato before leaving the room in a flourish of paper.

Nagato said nothing.

He never really understood his sensei's hatred for Konoha. It seemed to be a sore topic for him, and he would guess it had something to do with the fact that Konoha ninja had killed all of his family including Hanzo's heir. Nagato too shared the man's hatred of Konoha ninja, they had killed his mother and father right in front of his eyes before he had killed the Konoha ninjas with his newly awakened Rinnegan.

After wards Nagato had found Konan and Yahiko and then they were found by Hanzo who trained them to continue his legacy and enter an era of peace. Hanzo had trained the trio in a vast array of technique and before he died, the man had made Nagato, Konan and Yahiko swear to destroy Konohagakure for what they did to him. The three of them had agreed and put the destruction of Konoha at the back of their minds as they raced for ways to bring peace.

But destroying Konoha was still a major facet of their plan. It just meant that without the Nanabi, they had to tread more carefully in what they did.

Much more carefully.

* * *

Nagato's gaze locked onto the red haired girl that was currently grinning, he'd come home expecting a nice meal from the town but he hadn't been expecting this. He picked at the food slowly before once again speaking.

"What is this Karin?"

Karin grinned. Her crimson eyes seemingly glowing with mischief. The 12 year old girl held up a large bowl filled with the contents of Nagato's food. "It's ramen tou-san!"

"Ramen?" This was blasphemy. This didn't look like ramen nor did it smell like it. What the hell did the girl put in his food?

"Hai!" Karin sat down at the table across from Nagato. "I made it using a special recipe!"

"Special recipe?" Nagato was furious. This wasn't the time nor place to desecrate his ramen! Karin knew that they only got ramen from a well-known restaurant in the village. The flavours that restaurant used, and the delicious noodle recipe they had was to die for. Nagato couldn't remember the last time he had something home cooked for him but this was not what he wanted to eat.

From now on Nagato swore he would get Karin a proper tutor to help her cook. He had no idea if the girl could actually cook to be honest but he was going to make sure she would be able to cook.

"What did you put inside?" he asked.

"Secret! That's why it's a secret recipe!" Karin replied.

"Right." Nagato picked up a strand of ramen with his chopsticks before sniffing it. Seeing that the smell was still bad, he reluctantly moved his face closer to the noodles before he took some. He closed his eyes as the flavour of the ramen came back to him …

… "This is disgusting!" Nagato spat out some of the ramen as he shook his head. Coughing, he took a drink and had a good long drink before speaking next. "We're going out for tea tonight."

Karin slumped, her demeanour changing. "Sorry, tou-san, I wanted to surprise you, that's all." She took a breath and Nagato watched as some of her hair went up and went back down in the wind created by her breath.

"That's okay." Nagato scratched Karin's hair as he got up. The girl smiled at Nagato before she got up too and they were headed on their way. As they strode through the village, Nagato sensed ANBU flicker around them and the civilians stop and stare in awe as their God walked through them.

It hadn't been Nagato's idea to take control over the surrounding minor countries, it had actually been Yahiko's. The red-head had argued that though Amegakure was powerful, they didn't possess near enough shinobi to attack the other villages. The minor villages around them would add not only to their military might but it would make the other nations easier to persuade in Yahiko's opinion. It did make the other nations wary of them and their leader, the God of Ame.

After all, taking over countries in mere days added to the reputation that Nagato had. He had an SS ranking in every single bingo book and he hadn't even stepped foot outside of his country. He hadn't fought any shinobi from the major villages but they were that scared of his power that they were already openly taking steps against him. Not that those steps would actually do anything of course, but they could try.

Nagato remembered after taking over Kusagakure, he'd found Karin in a small cottage outside the village. The girl he'd immediately recognised as an Uzumaki, due to her bright red hair similar to his mother's and her powerful but unique chakra. He'd adopted the girl and raised her ever since. Whilst loud, and sometimes immature, Karin got along well with him, Yahiko and Konan. The girl especially got along well with Naruto having formed a bond with the blond. The blonde had been less than happy to hear he got a new 'sister' but the blonde had gotten over it.

Stopping at a large restaurant Nagato nodded at the waitress indicating that the meal should be put on his tab as well as getting the usual for him and Karin. The waitress nodded and scuttled off to the kitchen whilst Nagato and Karin sat down at a luxurious seat near the window. For now, Nagato could forget all about Akatsuki, and its goals and just spend some time with his adopted daughter.

* * *

If Akio Yotsuki had to say something when she became a nuke-nin, being a political liaison wasn't on her list.

That hadn't even appeared on her list at all.

But here she was, now a political liaison for Akatsuki and about to meet with the Yondaime Tsuchikage.

Oh, how the gods must be laughing at me, I failed my dream, now I'm meeting with the person who succeeded in her dream.

Akio brushed her long white hair as she sat in the room. Beside her was Yahiko who looked very calm considering the fact they were surrounded by a platoon of Iwa ANBU. A veritable army surrounded them. The Yondaime Tsuchikage was taking no chances. Akio supposed it was fair, they were S-rank nuke Nins after all. Well she was. Yahiko was just a part of a village that had bulldozed its way into becoming the unofficial sixth major hidden village.

Now she waited as the Yondaime Tsuchikage was seemingly too busy for them.

A lie. Like everything else she'd been told.

 _" **What is your name child?** " the booming voice asked. The Nibi looked down curiously at its host, the girl was curled up into a small ball was crying, her cries reverberating throughout the mindscape. " **Do not worry. I will not harm you, especially one as innocent as you."**_

 _Akio stopped sobbing and looked up into the feline eyes of the Nibi before replying. "My … name …. Is Akio." She wasn't scared of the bijuu, it had a large collar around its neck which signified that it was sealed inside of her._

 _" **Akio?** " The Nibi purred now as its face moved closer to Akio. " **Is that not a boy's name?** "_

 _"Hai."_

 _" **Why is it that you have a male name, little kitten?"** the Nibi asked. One of its paws picked up Akio and the girl was lifted to the Nibi's unique eyes. One was yellow and the other was green._

 _"Tou-san hopes it will make me stronger," Akio replied. "He wanted a boy, and instead he got a girl, but he wants me to be strong."_

 _" **And your mother? Did she not have a say in this?"**_

 _"Ka-san was dead." Akio broke out into tears as she fell onto the bijuu's paws._

 _" **I see."**_ _Matatabi was unsure of what to do. Seeing that letting the girl continue to cry would do nothing she continued to speak. " **Then do not let these tears mar that pretty face of yours, you must prove yourself to them, prove that you can be a powerful shinobi."**_

 ** _"_** _How?" Akio asked. "I'm a jinchuriki, no-one trusts me and they all think I'm a monster. Only ni-san and tou-san likes me. Tou-san says I'll be a great Raikage one day and lead Kumo to greatness. Ni-san plays with me all the time but everyone else thinks I'm a monster."_

 ** _"Then prove that you're not a monster. Show them that you can be greater than that."_**

And she'd done that.

She'd proven herself to be a prodigy, learning the Yotsuki clan's massive hoard of techniques, and becoming a jonin at the age of 14. She'd learnt her father's Black Lightning and Lightning Armour techniques and excelled in every single art possible. Ninjutsu, genjutsu, taijutsu even fuinjutsu though that was a lot harder than the other arts. Akio had trained under the eye of her father and the Nibi.

She was the first to fully master her bijuu chakra and learn the vast amount of techniques the Nibi could provide, the Nibi's powers having been transferred to her as a host. Akio's skills had earned a spot in ANBU and she had an exemplary mission record. Her power during the Third Shinobi War had led many to believe she would become the Raikage, she had fought Namikaze Minato in a spectacular battle, even though she lost she'd saved the lives of her teammates.

 _She had been the one who should have been the Yondaime Raikage, the village loved her. The civilians adored her, the shinobi respected her power and leadership skill. Her father had the utmost trust in her to lead Kumo to greatness. Her brothers Kirabi and Z believed whole-heartedly in her and would have followed her. She would have become Ay the Yondaime Raikage._

 _Only for her to be reminded what power was, only to be given a harsh dose of reality._

 _Only to be reminded who_ _really_ _held the decision of becoming Raikage._

 _The crowd cheered, the people screamed as two figures stood across from each other. One a powerfully built dark-skinned male with white hair, the other a slim but muscular dark skinned female with white hair and green eyes. Both stared at each other, their chakra levels increasing to the point it actually hurt the environment around them. The crowd murmured in amazement as the two S-rank shinobi faced off each other in a duel which would shape Kumogakure for years to come._

 _Akio knew it, this was the moment she had been waiting for, the moment she would become the Raikage. She just had to beat Z and impress him. Her gaze went briefly to the figure of a man dressed in rich embroidery and surrounded by bustling servants and aides. The man was surrounded on either side by a multitude of powerful chakra signatures and samurai as his gaze focused on the two combatants._

 _The Lightning Daimyo._

 _A figure of immense power in both political and other terms. The Lightning Daimyo was unique in that he had trained as a shinobi like the rest of his family. He'd also trained as a samurai and he possessed one of the shrewdest minds in the planet. He hadn't fought in the Third Shinobi War but his decisions regarding treaties and whatnot had made Kumogakure a village on par with Konoha._

 _But despite, his power and prestige, the Daimyo was still stuck in the teachings of old. He had the belief that women were sub-par to men and should be relegated to their place in the kitchen. To that end, any women born to him were married off to other nations to ensure good-will between them and his sons were raised in his teachings. This created a rift between him and the other Daimyo of the major nations. They clearly had much different views and vehemently rejected propositions of peace._

 _But all that was pushed out of her mind as she Akio faced her brother. All she had to do was win. Win and become the Raikage._

 _It was so simple._

 _Yet she failed._

 _The battle she won, blitzing her brother in both speed and strength, her power proving to be too much. She didn't use her bijuu chakra, she didn't have to, instead using her massive chakra reserves to good use, boosting her speed and strength beyond levels that Z couldn't match. And when he had returned to standard ninjutsu techniques, she was still too good overcoming everything he threw at her._

 _When the proctor called the fight, she stood victorious over the unconscious body of her brother and the stadium had hushed as the audience awaited the word of the Lightning Daimyo. Out of the corner of her eye, Akio spotted an old friend of her father Dodai shaking his head in sadness. She was confused, what could have made the man to be so sad? The battle had been on her side from the start, she would become the Raikage now, what was wrong with Dodai?_

 _Her answer was simple. The Lightning Daimyo shook his head at her and pointed to Z. "I will not have a woman as the leader of a shinobi village. Neither will I let a jinchuriki become a Kage. The possibility of her losing control over bijuu chakra is high." Shocked gasps were echoed throughout the stadium, it was well known that Akio had control over her bijuu chakra. "Z will be the Raikage as stipulated by my ancestor in the times of the Shodaime Raikage. My decision is final."_

 _No…_

 _No!_

 _She'd come so far, tried so much. Put her effort, her entire being into it and she was no being rejected? Chakra laced out of her as the Lightning Daimyo smirked. "Let us herald the dawn of the Yondaime Raikage!" Akio's chakra continued to rise in anger as the Daimyo continue seemingly ignoring her as if she was nothing more than a pest. "I wish to congratulate Z on becoming Raikage. I would like to speak to him regarding a new jinchuriki of the Nibi…"_

 _"_ _ **NOOOO!"**_ _Red chakra exploded out of Akio as she hurtled towards the Lightning Daimyo, the man moved impossibly dodging the attack as Akio hurtled upwards into his position, but it wasn't without fault. The man cried out as his right arm was cut off, blood going everywhere. Ignoring the pain, the Daimyo struggled to his feet, his small chakra presence going haywire._

 _"Kill her! Kill her! Kill her!"_

 _Akio moved._

 _Lighting exploded from her form as she moved to the left, dodging twin tails of chakra from a red-haired man with whisker marks on his cheek. Dimly she realized he was a member of the revived Hagoromo clan and descendant of Kinkaku and Ginkaku both criminals of Kumo who possessed the power of the Kyuubi. After their loss at the hands of the Nidaime Hokage, they had become nothing more than the lap dogs of the Lightning Daimyo allowing their clan to be revived and the power of their pseudo-jinchuriki abilities to be passed on._

 _All that passed through Akio's mind in seconds as she dodged red tails of bubbling chakra. She saw the Daimyo screaming for her to be killed. She saw the Hagoromo clansmen all covered in red chakra that covered their bodies. She saw Kirabi shake his head and she saw her brother Z shake his head as his sister fought. She saw..._

"The Tsuchikage will see you now."

Akio stood up as the aide led them into the Tsuchikage's office.

The office was nice, rich carpentry. Very good furniture and incredibly expensive stolen antiques littered the office. Paintings were on the walls and in front of the Tsuchikage's desk was a large

A good place for the Yondaime Tsuchikage Kurotsuchi to work.

The 20-year old woman watched the two powerful shinobi enter her office with a shrewd eye.

Akio entered the office and returned the eye in force. This was a girl who had risen through Iwagakure's ranks like Naruto. A prodigy taught by her father and grandfather. User of the Yoton bloodline limit as well as her grandfather's kekkai tota Jinton. This girl had become S-rank at the age of 15 and become the Tsuchikage 4 years later. She was powerful, there was no doubt about it.

"Imagine my surprise," Kurotsuchi said. "When I realized that you would be coming today, what had been the start of a great day just went to shit."

Yahiko said nothing as his eyes met Kurotsuchi.

"So Akatsuki, what exactly do you want with Iwagakure?"

"You know what we want," Yahiko replied to Kurotsuchi's question. "The question is, do you agree to the proposal?"

Kurostuchi snorted and pulled out several scrolls before placing them on a desk. "I don't know. After examining this in regards to the pros and the cons, I don't feel very safe with this proposal."

"Safe?" Yahiko asked.

"You know, happy, safe. The fact that my people will survive an attack by Ame's God is a good reason isn't it? The fact that a group of mad men who preach peace but have taken over countless countries in an attempt to keep the minor countries sage, yeah right. That kind of safe, especially considering you have Kumo's Darkness with you." She motioned to Akio. "Someone wanted for maiming the Lightning Daimyo and killing members of the Hagoromo clan. Yeah safe."

Yahiko should have expected this. Intel from Deidara said that Kurostuchi was a girl who would her village before anyone else and any threats would be dealt with by her. Deidara also revealed that the girl had a bit of a mouth on her and was incredibly sarcastic.

That statement never seemed truer. In less than a minute, she had both insulted Akatsuki, Nagato and Ame, but she had completely rebutted his argument.

"Akatsuki's methods for peace whilst they may be seen as … barbaric are not improper," Yahiko said calmly. "Many have done it before." Beside him Akio said nothing as Yahiko talked to Iwa's Princess.

Kurostuchi nodded. "And look where it got them, dead or branded as monsters."

Madara Uchiha was one. That guy though had the power to back up his quest to bring peace, well until he was killed by the Shodaime Hokage at the Valley of the End. Other than that, Yahiko couldn't really bring up anyone off the top of his head.

"Yes," he replied. "But Akatsuki looks at every possibility before they choose the most 'violent' one. The leaders of the villages that we took over were willing to work with us." The only village that had really been a pain was Ishigakure with their terrorists. But the terrorists had been dealt with by Yahiko quite easily.

"Right." Kurotsuchi sounded like she didn't believe him, Yahiko couldn't blame her. "And the Daimyo? What happened to them Undertaker?"

Yahiko scowled at his moniker. He had been less than pleased to hear he was called the Undertaker. The reason why was because he hadn't failed a mission and he apparently buried his enemies under a shower of blood and earth. Ridiculous, he was just effective in how he approached his missions and if push came to shove, he would use his overwhelming power to crush his opponents. Seeing that Kurotsuchi was about to speak, he interrupted.

"The Daimyo of each country kept their wealth but gave their power to someone more suited for the position. Do not worry, Akatsuki will not take over the Land of Earth. The agreement is for an alliance between our two countries."

Kurostuchi leaned backwards in her chair as she weighed her options after Yahiko's words. Akatsuki wasn't a bad organization. They wanted peace and her spies said the people that lived in the new country were happy and relatively cheerful. The main issue came with the fact that no-one actually knew Akatsuki's leaders or if they were honestly telling the truth about peace.

"I can agree to some of these agreements," Kurotsuchi began after she finished pondering. "The ones dealing with agriculture and trading will be of use to Iwagakure."

Yahiko nodded. That was acceptable and a good start. It had been what they had thought she would do anyway. He opened his mouth to speak but was cut off as Kurotsuchi continued to speak.

"But military wise, the people of Iwagakure will need a lot of convincing."

"A lot of convincing."

* * *

The forests of the Land of Fire rustled as a tall muscular figure walked through them.

The figure wore a long black cloak with a large broadsword which was shaped like a butcher's knife. The man's brown eyes looked forward whilst his short spiky hair rustled gently in the breeze.

Zabuza Momochi grinned.

Ah, he thought absently. This feels good. To walk without worrying about anything other than his next pay check from a mission, and to not worry about some brats who wanted to train all the time and avenge their clans.

His powerful strides led him through the forest with purpose towards his destination.

Where was he going again? Zabuza stopped for a moment before continuing. Right, capital of the Land of Fire, protect some princess and scare shit out of some kids.

Ugh, he remembered when he was young, all he wanted to do was protect princesses and save countries. The Sandaime Mizukage had beat that out of him easily. Heh, in fact he was surprised he was getting a mission like this considering what he'd done to his genin class and also the country he was from.

Also considering the fact that he had a part to play in the civil war that had ravaged their country.

Kisame had balls, Zabuza realized. Big balls of steel to actually kill a Daimyo on their mission. The death of the Water Daimyo and his family had completely destabilized the Land of Water, within days, Yagura had been attempting to push his anti-bloodline agenda into the country. The rebels under the reign of Mei Terumi resisted this agenda and between all that, politicians attempted to take control through any means possible.

Each major country had two power, one the ruling Kage, the other the Daimyo and his family. In most cases, the Daimyo had some say over the way in which a village was run and he could decide if a country went to war or not. In other cases like the Land of Water, the Daimyo had no say and there would be two powers each vying for control in the country. This resulted in high tensions and a country always on the brink of war. When the Water Daimyo died, well things went insane.

And the country erupted into war truly earning its name as the Village of the Bloody Mist.

Zabuza had watched friend turn on friend.

Husband on wife.

Brother on sister.

All in an attempt for power. He remembered a saying by the Sandaime Mizukage as he watched the brutal onslaught.

Power corrupts, if given power and the means to accomplish goals. People will jump at the opportunity.

Oh Zabuza saw people jump at the opportunity all right, he saw people crawl over each other at it.

Ah, whatever, he didn't care. He'd gotten out of the place with two boys, one called Daichi and Haku. Daichi was a member of the Kaguya clan and Haku was a member of the Yuki clan and both had escaped Yagura's bloodline hunters. Honestly he didn't understand what exactly Yagura had towards the bloodline holders. They were valuable ninja of the village, heck two of Kiri's Mizukage's had had bloodline limits. Yagura was just going around killing ninja who could become valuable to them.

What an idiot.

Zabuza stopped suddenly as he heard something. He let out his senses and sensed nothing. He continued walking only to pull out his broadsword and unleash a large amount of wind chakra from his blade. The wind chakra laced through the air as it cut down a tree elicited a loud yelp from the top as a figure landed heavily.

Zabuza watched the figure get up with a grin on his face only to stop as a powerful chakra presence made itself known to the two of them.

"Kushimaru, Zabuza." The tone of the voice gave nothing away.

"Sandaime Mizukage-sama?"

The former Mizukage nodded, his long black hair billowing in the wind with his movements. He was dressed in a black suit of armour and the symbol of the Yuki clan displayed on his armour. The tall man faced the two shinobi with a critical gaze before speaking. Despite being alive since the end of the Clan Wars, the man still seemed to be in perfect health.

"Where is my great grandson Zabuza?"

"In Kirigakure."

The man's chakra spiked briefly as he turned his gaze fully onto Zabuza. "And why Zabuza is my descendant in Kirigakure? Did I not tell you that he is to be trained with you at all times?"

Zabuza gulped. He did not want to displease the man or get him especially angry. The tales of the man's anger wasn't something to be underestimated. He had seen the man get angry.

"I decided to have Haku and Daichi in as spies in Kirigakure," Zabuza replied. "They can see how the new Mizukage is and if she's better than Yagura. I also accepted a mission in the Land of Fire. It's from the Fire Daimyo and it pays well. Very well. "

The Sandaime Mizukage narrowed his eyes. His hand rubbed against the hilt of his chokuto as he stood pondering Zabuza's words.

"Very well. But if Haku dies, it will be your fault Zabuza." Zabuza nodded at the Mizukage's words. "Now, what does the Fire Daimyo want with you?"

"I'm to escort his daughter."

"Very well. Kushimaru, come." The man didn't stop and rushed over to the Mizukage whilst he began to turn. "Come to us when the mission is completed Zabuza. We have work to do." The man strode off leaving Zabuza releasing a breath he didn't know he was releasing.

Man the Sandaime Mizukage was a bastard.

He was ascold as his kekkai genkai having lived since the Era of the Clan Wars and having led his village from the First Shinobi War all the way to the Third. The Sandaime had been alive for so long due to the use of the Sanbi and Rokubi's chakra to stimulate his body's cells and rejuvenate his chakra reserves. The man had led Kiri to victory many times, especially by destroying Uzushio in an alliance with Kumo and other minor villages. But despite his power, the man had been defeated handily by Yagura when he took control of Kirigakure.

But he was a bastard.

He'd earned the village its name with his brutal methods of strengthening genin and shinobi as well as having Kirigakure backstab and betray many of their names. After all the Sandaime had done, the people of Kirigakure had been more than willing to betray him for someone who wouldn't damped their village's reputation.

It was a pity, the person they chose to follow was even worse than the Sandaime Mizukage. Yagura had started out well but after the Third Shinobi War, something had happened to him and he'd started his new agenda against the bloodline rebels. This agenda had resulted in the destruction of much of Kirigakure and the village being worse of than it started.

Zabuza looked up to the sky as a flock of ravens began to travel.

* * *

"Damn." The blonde haired figure got up from his position as he looked around him.

"Where the hell am I?"

 _ **Like the chapter? Yeah, hope it settles some questions you may have. And Hanzo did want peace originally, look on Narutopedia, he wanted it before he got into cahoots with Danzo. And Nagato is powerful, trained by Hanzo, the Rinnegan, Salamander Summons and Sage Mode.**_

 _ **Yes, Sage Mode.**_

 _ **Kumogakure seems like a country that like power. Rest assured, it's only the Daimyo's family that feels this way, everyone else is perfectly fine and not sexist. Akio doesn't have a hatred for Kumo, no only the Daimyo.**_

 _ **Naruto will return in the next chapter! And this story will possibly get … dark. Expect betrayals and revelations.**_

 _ **Leave a review and enjoy.**_


	5. Chapter 5

_Ch. 4_

 _ **I'm back and it took a while. Sorry. I got busy.**_

"Damn." The blonde haired figure got up from his position as he looked around him.

"Where the hell am I?"

There was no response and Naruto Namikaze gritted his teeth as he stood shakily. His torso was covered in a large scar which was healing rapidly whilst his Akatsuki cloak was showered with blood. It wasn't his blood, it was the blood of his partner. In his hand he held two rings, one for him and the other for his former partner.

They'd been sent to capture the Sanbi on Nagato's orders. What the man wanted with a bijuu Naruto had no idea, but he did it anyway for the goal of peace. Getting to the location of the Sanbi, the two had forced him out when Naruto flared his chakra intriguing the bijuu. The resulting battle had Naruto win using his powerful chakra chains and the two had begun to seal the beast away when they were interrupted.

A figure dressed in black with blue stripes all over it and wearing an orange mask with one eyehole had disrupted the sealing of the Sanbi, forcing the creature out into the wild again. Naruto's partner had attempted to fight the beast only to be destroyed with his ring remaining which had stunned Naruto as the man had been touted as immortal and all but unkillable. Before Naruto could fight, he was taken away to here. Wherever here was.

Looking around the blonde could see that he was in a strange area where there was an immeasurable amount of randomly arranged and differently sized rectangular prisms. Several were high, reaching up and blocking the only light in the area-what appeared to be an artificial sun- others were lower, dipping down below Naruto's feet and forming large deep recesses. Naruto could also see massive amounts of water in the area going around the prisms.

This was strange…

Where he was appeared to be in no area known to the Elemental Nations and Naruto throughout his travels in Akatsuki and as a member of ANBU Black Ops knew a lot of areas in the Elemental Nations. The place also didn't appear to be any summoning realm or land as Naruto could not sense any chakra or anything he would even remotely think of to do with summons in this area.

He was lost.

Or that man had used a unique space-time ninjutsu to bring him to a dimension.

For a second, Naruto felt a dash of fear. Masters of space-time ninjutsu were incredibly powerful and were capable of defeating enemies in seconds. The Nidaime Hokage had defined the term as he created a vast array of space-time ninjutsu which he used in the Clan Wars Era and the First Shinobi World War. The Nidaime Hokage at that time was renowned as the world's fastest man and had helped Konoha greatly in the war killing Kumo's elite Kinkaku force.

His father had continued to define the term decades later. Minato had become a Seal Master at an incredibly young age, the age of 16, when the Third Shinobi War started, Minato's skill had been already S rank but with the creation of the Hirashin and the Rasengan, Minato became feared as he was easily capable of taking out entire armies within seconds as well as defeating multiple S rank ninjas at a time.

If someone had become a master after those two then they were bound to be powerful. But this? Capable of teleporting to … another dimension? This was unheard of and insane.

It still didn't help the fact he was lost.

"Hello!"

Naruto waited for something, anything and he got nothing. Goddamn it, where the hell am I?"

Naruto's eyes focused on the 'sun' which he could tell was artificial. The sun looked weird, it looked like a large white glow stick in the shape of a giant sphere. The strange sun was suspended incredibly high in the air and shone out, letting Naruto look at the area around him.

Perhaps…

 _ **Kuchiyose no Jutsu**_ _(Summoning Technique)_

A burst of chakra exploded from Naruto's position but he was saddened to see no seal appear from the ground or a burst of smoke. The small nick he made with his thumb quickly healed.

Damn, can't summon Shikasu-sama as well…

"Well then Namikaze."

Naruto blinked at the voice. He spun around saw a figure spin out from a vortex.

Naruto's blood went cold as he realised who exactly was here.

The figure had white hair and pupil less white eyes. Said figure's hair went down to his shoulders and the figure wore a black cloak with white stripes all over it. Naruto could sense the powerful chakra in the man as he had a high water affinity and a secondary earth affinity. The water affinity was the more troubling as it was the highest Naruto had seen in anyone and that worried him.

Mangetsu Hozuki.

Mangetsu Hozuki was a deadshinobi of Kirigakure who had made it into the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist. His skill had been well known throughout the world in all of the ninja arts and the man had been likened to his ancestor the Nidaime Mizukage. He'd been thought dead when the Kirigakure civil war started as well as a large number of the Ninja Swordsmen.

The man was also suspected of wiping out the Hozuki clan on the Mizukage's orders. It made sense, a clan of people who could turn into water would be hard for a lot of people to combat. Having someone on the inside to stop them would prove to be advantageous. And Mangetsu had been a rising star of Kiri and a part of the village's strongest generation alongside Kisame Hoshigaki, Zabuza Momochi and Ameyuri Ringo.

"What are you here for?" Seeing a dead person was a major surprise.

"I'm to test you," came the reply.

"Test me?"

"Hai, my master wishes for me to test your ability." Here Mangetsu unsealed a sword which made Naruto's eyes widen. "Now come Namikaze."

"And what if I don' want to fight you."

"Then my master will let you die now."

Naruto narrowed his eyes at Mangetsu before he moved.

Naruto moved in towards Mangetsu's location within seconds, his hands raised as a large Rasengan formed in his hand. The powerful Hozuki blurred as he reappeared elsewhere, his broadsword Shibuki having been pulled out and now the man took up his stance against Naruto.

Naruto eyed the sword wearily as he dropped the Rasengan.

He did not want to be exploded today by the Shibuki blade.

The blade was renowned for its unique explosive tags which were actually part of the blade. The blade had been wielded by many powerful members of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen and its explosive power was well known and feared. It had been thought lost when the Kirigakure civil war had started. Clearly it wasn't and Mangetsu's 'master' was the one who had saved him.

Whoever the hell he was.

Suigetsu's hands blurred as he threw the sword up in the air and puffed his cheeks. Naruto's eyes widened as he realised he could barely even see the man's hands move. Just how powerful was this guy? He'd been almost an S ranked ninja before his death and he seemed to be on par with him now.

 ** _Suiton_** _:_ _ **Daiteppōdama**_ _(Water Release: Great Gunshot)_

A massive blast of water exploded from the man's mouth at an insane speed towards Naruto. Naruto barely dodged the attack and when he did, Mangetsu was upon him, the Shibuki blade already upon him. Naruto's hands turned metallic as he deflected the sword to the side and pushed Mangetsu to the side. Immediately he attempted to rush the man but Mangetsu was surprisingly strong despite his slim frame and Naruto was blocked and pushed backwards.

"Hmm? Kinton? A powerful kekkai genkai Namikaze. Although I am fighting a powerful opponent." Naruto gritted his teeth at the way in which Mangetsu spoke, the man spoke in a disjointed way as if everything was beneath him and nothing mattered. It irked him because he did not like to be underestimated. He let loose several kunai and threw them towards Mangetsu.

Mangetsu's head went to the side as he almost casually dodged some of Naruto's kunai. The blonde's hand went to his katana as his blade came out clashing with Shibuki. The resulting explosion forced the two of them back as the Shibuki blade let loose several of its exploding tags before Naruto clashed with Mangetsu again.

"Hmm." Mangetsu examined the unique katana. The blade must be truly be something to withstand the force of Shibuki's explosives. It had a completely black blade and was rather long. The blade however was right for Naruto he could tell, it fit in his hand and Naruto used it like a professional. "A blade made by Masamune-san? How unique, I was under the impression that he wasn't going to make another sword."

"I was specialand I'll show you how special I am by killing you and your stupid master." Naruto's katana glowed white with massive amounts of wind chakra as he increased his speed. His non-sword hand began to make rapid one hand seals briefly stunning Mangetsu before the man moved backwards as Naruto finished his jutsu.

 ** _Katon: Gōka Mekkyaku_** _(Fire Release: Great Fire Annihilation)_

A massive wave of fire exploded from Naruto's mouth towards Mangetsu. The resulting swipe from Naruto's katana made the fire even hotter and powerful as wind enhanced fire. Naruto cut the technique after several minutes. He'd mastered that technique with Itachi and had trained hard to be able to use it with one hand. Due to his Uzumaki heritage and powerful chakra, the Gōka Mekkyaku didn't use up a massive amount of his chakra compared to other people.

"A powerful attack."

Naruto's head spun around to see Mangetsu get up seemingly fine from a location around a hundred metres away. The man raised his blade as he smirked letting some of his shark like teeth be shown to Naruto. Naruto didn't do anything, for someone with as much skill in water manipulation, it was to be expected he would survive, considering the fact he was a member of the Hozuki clan.

Hozuki clan…

Naruto's face broke into a grin as he realized that he had the answer to his problems. All he had to do was put some lightning chakra into Mangetsu's body and he would be dead. All the members of the Hozuki clan could turn their bodies into water, however they were extremely vulnerable to techniques of the lightning element.

Mangetsu tipped his head to the side as he observed Naruto's new found confidence. Seeing that the blonde had an attack that could be fatal, Mangetsu decided not to let Naruto start it. Naruto just saw the man jump up into the air with the Shibuki blade pointed towards Naruto as he began to use a powerful jutsu.

 ** _Kibaku Fuda Suraisu_** ( _Explosive Tag Slice)_

Massive amounts of explosive tags shot out from the Shibuki blade towards Naruto. The jutsu was unique in that the explosive tags instead of being floppy and flexible were now hard and worked like kunai. Eyes widening at the sheer number of tags, Naruto leapt backwards in shock at the number and also the fact that the blade continually filled itself. Did the explosive tags run out at all? As each tag landed, it exploded tearing up much of this 'world' and destroying many pillars and much of the ground.

Mangetsu landed on the ground, his eyes surveying the area. The battle was going as expected, Naruto was not an easy opponent. He was after all an S rank ninja and S rank ninjas tented to be powerful. If not they were undeserving of the title. Naruto hadn't used his latent Kyuubi chakra which made him wonder how powerful he would be with it. Not that he was worried, Mangetsu believed his strength to be enough to fight the blonde.

However Mangetsu was careful too. His Hozuki chakra and lineage from the Nidaime Mizukage offered him large chakra reserves. But Naruto's chakra reserves were much larger due to the blonde's Uzumaki chakra, his heritage and his pseudo-jinchuriki status. His ears twitched and he jerked his body to the side as a massive wave of red chakra came towards him through the smoke and dust caused by the Kibaku Fuda Suraisu.

 _ **Purazuma**_ _**Suraisu**_ _(Plasma Slice)_

Mangetsu saw the wave of red chakra slam into several of the prisms causing more dust. Mangetsu himself landed on a block as he inspected the damage caused by the technique before facing Naruto.

"A unique jutsu. Plasma? A combination of fire and lightning natured chakra and incredibly dangerous. The fire natured chakra heats it up to incredible temperatures and the lightning natured chakra lets the plasma cut through any defence. In addition to your Kinton, it is a good offense and defence no? I can see why you are powerful no?"

Naruto narrowed his eyes before leaping back into action. Two chains of chakra laced out from his back as he fought Mangetsu in close combat with his free hand hardening into metal. Mangetsu responded in style with the Shibuki blade and a chokuto in another hand. The two met halfway towards each other their respective blades coming clashing.

Naruto ducked several explosive tags from the Shibuki blade as he fired blasts of plasma from his katana blade. Mangetsu responded by blocking the plasma blasts with more explosive tags before using a jutsu of the Hozuki clan. Naruto jerked to the side dodging the unusually powerful Mizudeppo jutsu before he responded.

 _ **Kokuangyo no Jutsu (**_ _Bringer of Darkness Technique)_

Mangetsu's eyesight suddenly disappeared as a wave of black covered the area. The man's eyes widened as he realised the technique used and he began to use genjutsu to circumvent it. However his attempts to overpower the genjutsu failed as the technique had Naruto's chakra reinforcing it. Before he could move, he felt Naruto's chakra close in on his location at a speed much too fast for him to react.

 _ **Chidori**_

Naruto stabbed the Chidori straight through Mangetsu's chest, his mouth lifted upwards in a smirk of victory. "Although I hate the man now, Kakashi did make some good techniques." He cut the flow of chakra to the Kokuangyo before removing his lightning covered fist from Mangetsu's chest "A good fight….?"

 _ **Suika no Jutsu**_ _(Hydrification Technique)_

Much to Naruto's shock, Mangetsu's body was able to turn into water and reform immediately several metres away and not stay shocked with lightning chakra as it was supposed to be. Naruto stared at the man as he wondered how the hell he was alive.

The Hozuki clan bloodline limit was already powerful, the ability to turn into water made them excellent spies and gave them a massive advantage in the Land of Water. There was a reason in the eyes of many, the Nidaime Mizukage hadn't defeated Mu, and their fight was on land, even if in water, the battle may have ended in a draw due to the Jinton of Mu. If Mangetsu didn't possess his clan's weakness then he would no doubt be the strongest of his clan.

"Surprised Namikaze-san?" Mangetsu asked as he begun to raise Shibuki with his massive chakra reserves raising. "My master has seen it fit to outfit me with many enhancements. I cannot be useless to him with my clan's weakness, no?"

 _ **Mizu Fūsen no Jutsu**_ _(Water Balloon Technique)_

From the pool of water at Mangetsu's feet formed by the Suika no Jutsu, bubbles of water came up and rushed towards Naruto. The bubbles of water were thrown with such speed and force that Naruto was hit by them and launched backwards into a pillar. He winced and used a high powered shunshin to disappear as Mangetsu slammed into his former location with the Shibuki blade pointed at him.

Naruto was given no room to breathe as the man was immediately upon him with the Shibuki blade coming at Naruto at an insane speed. He ducked the first couple of swings and was able to redirect some of the hits before he was hit with great strength by a punch by Mangetsu. Blood came out of Naruto at the insane force behind the punch. He slammed into a large prism and with his ears ringing, he lay there trying to get his bearings.

Whoever his master is, he trained him well. Mangetsu's treating me like a genin and with the Shibuki blade, I can't get close to him or risk getting blown up. I'm not even sure if I turn into steel whether or not I'll be invulnerable to his attacks. The Hozuki bloodline lets him turn into water and it also lets him hit with great strength and he's fast as well. Damn it!

On top of an unusually large prism, sat three figures, two women and one man. The women were watching fight in interest whilst the man leaned back and gave a smirk which couldn't be seen under his unique mask. All three of them wore black cloaks with a blue wave symbol on the collar.

"I'm curious," the man said. "How will you fight now Naruto-kun?" The man's glowing red eye watched the match and his subordinates nodded at the fight. How would Naruto fight Mangetsu without his weakness to lightning techniques?

Swinging chains of chakra laced out from Naruto's back as he using them like tentacles he rose up and began to attack, with chakra pouring out from his hands and feet as small Rasengans that acted like bullets. The small Rasengans slammed repeatedly into Mangetsu but the man just turned into water and disappeared elsewhere, his hands running through hand seals before he slammed them onto the ground.

 _ **Doton:**_ ** _Oshiagemasu_** _(Earth Release: Push Up)_

Naruto tensed, his body alert and he jerked to the side as the earth under him moved upwards. Landing on another patch of earth, he was alarmed to find that the earth under him moved upwards again. His eyes widened as he realized that pillars of earth all around him in this strange area were continually moving up and down. It was as if they were being pushed up.

Push Up? What an adept name…

Naruto's katana glowed as he released a blast of plasma chakra from the blade. However as the plasma began to leave the blade, the earth around him jerked upwards jarring his shot and making the plasma swerve away from Mangetsu. Naruto grit his teeth only for him to suddenly duck and jerk away as a powerful Mizudeppo slammed into his side making him groan in pain as he realised the jutsu had got a good hit in. His powerful healing chakra on the other hand began to heal the wound.

The earth pushes up, and he can control it with ease. Attacking him would just end up in me missing. More Mizudeppo jutsus shot out from Mangetsu's hands and Naruto went to work dodging some of them and being hit by a small number of them. His resulting technique's all missed as the man used the Oshiagemasu to make the technique's sail past him.

Ugh! Eat this water freak!

Having no need or desire to use his pseudo-jinchuriki abilities, Naruto decided to use another technique which would do the job easily as well. Turning his hands into steel, Naruto slammed them together and created a small Rasengan which rotated violently in his hands. In the centre of the Rasengan, a tiny nucleus appeared surrounded by pulsating lightning chakra. Leaping up into the air, he let the Rasengan grow bigger and bigger till it dwarfed his body before he threw the Rasengan forward with a yell.

 ** _Ōdama Rasen-bolt_**

The violent ball slammed into the ground as Mangetsu moved backwards in alarm at the sheer power of the technique. The man's eyes widened in shock as the ball expanded and massive amounts of lightning chakra pulsed out from the centre of the Rasen-bolt. The lightning chakra hit the prisms and immediately disintegrated them turning them into specks of dust within seconds. The chakra continued to expand destroying a large majority of the area around them in a dome like shape until it dissipated with small specks of lightning still running across the air.

Naruto landed on the ground at the bottom of the dome, with lightning chakra surrounding his figure. He ignored the dip in his chakra reserves as he looked at the area around him noting the destruction. Even if Mangetsu wasn't weak to lightning chakra, he would have still died with that attack, Naruto hadn't seen anyone survive it as of yet. He'd trained extensively after leaving Konoha and this was the result.

A jutsu capable of wiping out armies.

Such was the power of an S rank shinobi.

Such was the power of motivation and vengeance granted to him.

Huh, if Tou-san could see me like this…

What would his father say? His father had always preached to Naruto about the village and honouring the village. His father had been the prime example of someone who gave it all to the village. But that kind of devotion came at a cost, his father hardly spent time with him and his mother and he spent most of his time in the Hokage office. Ever since he was four, Naruto had hardly spent any time with his father and most of his time had been spent with his mother.

And now? After the death of his parents and after growing up. He was now a 'criminal', someone who was wanted by every nation on the planet. He'd attempted to kill the Hokage and destroy Konoha. He'd committed what many would say was treason. But he had a reason.

At least he thought he had a valid reason.

"Huh," Naruto began to move now, treading through the dust raised by the power of the technique. With Mangetsu seemingly dead, Naruto now had to get the hell out of here.

"Well, Naruto-kun."

The deep voice stopped Naruto in his tracks as he spun around to face a tall man wearing an orange mask in addition to a long black cloak and a wave symbol on the collar.. A large unique fan rested on the man's back as well as a large katana with a raven's head on the pommel. The man wore a set of gloves which Naruto could see were reinforced with metal and bandages came out under the gloves and into the inside of the man's sleeves.

"You!" A red blade of chakra spun out and hit the man in the chest but the man nimbly dodged the attack and appeared elsewhere out of a swirl.

Naruto's eyes widened. The hell? What kind of teleportation was that? Who was this person?

"Curious?" The man asked. "Don't be. This is purity at its finest…"

Naruto just stared at the man. What did that even mean? Purity at its finest? "Who the hell are you?" He didn't feel rage for his partner. Hidan was annoying and hard to deal with and his 'loss' would be easily accepted by the Akatsuki. This man though, he was dangerous.

"Is it necessary for you to know?" the man asked. "Or maybe it isn't? Or maybe it is? I wouldn't know. I'm just a man surrounded in a very violent and chaotic world."

Naruto's blank look returned the man's gaze as he noted a single coal black eye staring at him. The man he noted had black hair which reached down to his back and now he noted that the man had enormous chakra reserves. Reserves which were somehow bigger than his own. And the feel of the man's chakra was…

Dark, corrupt.

"My name … is Tobi."

Naruto's eyes narrowed. "Tobi?"

"Yeah. Tobi. In Ancient cultures around the time of the Sage, it means 'God is good'. Huh, God is good, good to me, good to everyone, good to well you. There have been many powerful shinobi in history with the name Tobi." Here the man scratched the back of his head. "Um… I just have to remember them."

Naruto blinked before shifting his position. "What do you want then… Tobi?"

"Don't you find it curious, Naruto-kun?" Tobi said, his voice calm. "That Akatsuki is made up of a group of … criminals?"

Naruto had asked that question himself. Why would Nagato approach them? They were wanted criminals and they undoubtedly had other agendas, what would Nagato do with them?

"Don't you find it curious that Nagato in all his wisdom, all his power, decided to ask for the assistance of nuke-nins? The God of Ame himself, the first SS rank shinobi since your father, came down from high porch and found some of the most dangerous people in the world to accomplish his goals of peace?"

From a swirl Mangetsu and two other shinobi came out which Naruto noted to be Pakura of the Shakuton and the Yondaime Kazekage's eldest child and one of the few people to beat him in a chunin exams, Gaia. The girl's red hair and sandy brown eyes locked onto Naruto's for a second before she looked away with a smirk on her face.

"Don't you find it odd, that Nagato 'trusts' you so much? Well, out of the organization, only you and Akio are the ones who are not actual criminals in a sense. You're just scorned by your village hmm?"

Naruto's eyes hardened as he glared at the man. "Get to the point."

"What's that saying?" Tobi continued. "You either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain." The man's sharingan eye disappeared to be replaced by a coal black eye. "That's me and you Namikaze isn't it. We were both heroes and now we're villains."

Naruto just looked at the man whilst Mangetsu stood there calmly, his blade still pointed at Naruto. The two figures beside him shifted uncomfortably as the area became clouded with Naruto's killing intent.

What?

Who the hell was this guy?

What kind of person thought like this? What kind of person existed?

Who washe?

"I was praised as a hero," the man continued. His voice went low. "Then the village betrayed me, using me as a pawn in their games. Then I decided to break free of their stupid games and become what I want to be."

"In a sense, we are both the same. Scorned by our villages. Hunted by nuke-nin. Well you are, I'm not. That'd be bad, hmm?" The man turned around, his face obstructed from view as he motioned towards the trio behind him and Naruto watched in interest as they were teleported away through that strange swirl. "Well, I don't even know why I brought them here. Neither do I know why I brought you here. I guess I was… curious."

A power play.

Tobi was showing off his assets to Naruto. Showing off those who he had under his control. The fight against Mangetsu was to test Naruto, he knew that, the man had admitted it. But for what reason? What reason would he have to even fight Mangetsu? And the man's subordinates were both unique in their own way. Both of them being the candidate for the title of Godaime Kazekage and both of them being S rank ninjas. Who exactly was this man?

Naruto's eyes narrowed as those thoughts went through his mind before he came to a decision. He had enough of this idiot man. He blurred, reappearing behind him, his katana inside the man's stomach. "Fuck you."

The man chuckled as the world seemingly cracked around Naruto and Naruto became aware of a stinging pain in his chest. He gasped as he fell to the ground, his body registering a powerful poison entering his body. Tobi's voice changed from the relatively light hearted tone to a different one with massive amounts of killing intent and chakra filling the air.

"So, Namikaze. I'll be waiting for you. As you watch your world crumble, as those allies of yours disappear and as those bonds you have are destroyed, I'll be waiting for you, in your deepest darkest moments."

"Impossible…" Naruto's eyes locked onto that eye he saw, in the mask, an eye which he thought was not achievable anymore.

The eye spun, giving Naruto a sense on nausea as he began to disappear into a swirl.

"Soon, Namikaze."

The Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan eye he saw would only be the least of Naruto's worries in the future.

 _ **Story's heating up now, as you can see. Naruto is here. Updates... don't know. As much as I can.**_


End file.
